ONE of Yate and Chipping Sodbury's three secondary schools is almost certain to be closed despite impassioned pleas from pupils, staff and parents.

More than 100 governors, pupils and supporters of King Edmund Community School turned out to a meeting to discuss the future of secondary education in the area.

Since the Gazette exclusively revealed that the school - South Gloucestershire's smallest which has surplus places - is most likely to be closed under the plans, rumours have been spreading that a decision has already been made.

South Gloucestershire Council's ruling cabinet insisted that was not the case at its Monday meeting, when it agreed to launch a public consultation into the future of King Edmund School, as well as those of Brimsham Green and Chipping Sodbury Schools.

Residents will be asked to consider four options; one would amalgamate Chipping Sodbury and King Edmund Schools, another two would close King Edmunds and the fourth would see all three remain open.

All options would see the creation of a new vocational centre, for which King Edmunds has won a £3.1million Government grant, being withheld by the council until the consultation is complete.

Given just ten days notice of the meeting, a packed room of King Edmund supporters appealed to the cabinet to reject any plan for a consultation. They slammed the council's original report, which included only three options all of which would see King Edmunds close.

Northavon MP Steve Webb said: "If the council launches this consultation I am concerned it will rightly be perceived as a stitch-up.

"One school is perceived to have an axe to its throat and that will be self-fulfilled as parents will not continue to send their kids there."

Director of education Therese Gillespie said falling pupil numbers at King Edmunds and a "collapse" in exam results means the school was not viable. Sixth-form student Kerry Siddon, 16, said: "What about the students who get As and Bs?

"The council is only looking at the students who are failing but if it gives us a vocational centre, those students will have a chance and so will we. If the school closes completely, none of us will have a chance."

Jenny Roberts, 17, said King Edmunds had the "best teaching staff in Yate". She added: "If you shut us down you are shutting off our opportunities and our futures."

The cabinet agreed that an option to keep all three schools open be added to a questionnaire, which is being finalised by the three political party leaders before it is distributed to the public as part of the consultation.

After the meeting, outgoing headteacher Liz Shawhulme told the Gazette: "If that was a democratic process I am ashamed to have brought my pupils to it. That was not my idea of democracy."

Mrs Shawhulme said she hoped all three schools would work together and vowed that the King Edmund School community would be fighting any decision to close it.