PARENTS battling to save a Mirfield school today vowed: We fight on.

Their pledge came as a report confirmed that Kirklees Council plans to shut Castle Hall School.

Senior councillors meet on Thursday and are expected to approve a decision to shut the school, despite pupils getting record exam results this year and in the face of a huge public outcry.

But parents and others fighting to save the school are already planning their next step.

Their detailed appeal will be posted to the Government’s Office of the Schools Adjudicator within minutes of the Cabinet decision on Thursday.

Karen Rowling, a spokesman for the Retain Education At Castle Hall protest group, said: “We expected this.

“The report to the Cabinet is not a shock, although it is not very nice reading about how they view the school and the decision to close it.

“We always expected Kirklees Council to press ahead with this action and if, as is likely, the Cabinet gives the go-ahead for the closure process then our appeal goes in.

“As a foundation school we do have that right of appeal and the school governors plan to exercise that right.

“Kirklees Council have shown their stubbornness in this and have ploughed ahead with their plans despite all the evidence showing that Castle Hall is a good school with a future.

“But we fight on. We will be there in numbers on Thursday afternoon when councillors meet to discuss the report and we will continue our protests”.

Those protests have included hundreds of letters to the council, who mooted the closure plans as part of the controversial £200m Building Schools For The Future plans.

The plans centred on North Kirklees and propose changes to several schools.

A plan for the schools across Huddersfield and the rest of Kirklees is set to be launched before the end of this year.

The £200m proposals will look at high schools across the area.

The Office of the Schools Adjudicator was set up to examine concerns over education provision.

One strand is to resolve disputes where there is local disagreement on statutory proposals for school reorganisation or on the transfer and disposal of non playing field land and assets.

The protest group expect their appeal to be heard within weeks.