Last-ditch appeals to avert the closure of a village primary school look set to be rejected by the leaders of a council which has faced repeated criticism for failing to maintain local education provision in rural areas.

Letters of objections from grandparents, parents and the manager of a nursery, arguing St Hilda’s Ampleforth Primary School has a viable future will be presented to North Yorkshire Council’s executive on Tuesday (June 16) as it considers ceasing to maintain it from September.

The authority’s leading members will also consider splitting its catchment across the expansive area between Husthwaite, Terrington and Helmsley.

The move follows the Conservative-led authority’s Liberal Democrats calling for a moratorium on the succession of such school closures to highlight “the loss of key facilities from our communities” across North Yorkshire.

Last autumn, the authority’s children’s scrutiny committee heard the succession of rural school closures was “only likely to get worse” with a looming oversupply of places, despite attempts to prevent an increasing number of schools going into the red.

After the council published its intention to close St Hilda’s the authority received objections, including from grandparents and parents and the manager of a nursery, arguing remained much-needed, with one stating the closure would “rip the heart out of the village community”.

The manager of Daisy Day Care, a private nursery in Ampleforth, wrote that the proposed closure was “creating immense upset and stress” in the village.

He said: “We know that St Hilda’s can be a viable school again, it just needs to be given the chance to ride this storm, my children attended St Hilda’s and myself and all the parents are very passionate about keeping it open.”

A former pupil and parent of a three-year-old attending the school’s nursery said St Hilda’s closure “would have a huge effect on businesses and the residents of Ampleforth”.

She said: “It’s always been a smaller school. However, this meant the pupils got help when they needed it. In a larger school, for example; my younger brother and sister, who are both dyslexic could have been missed, luckily St Hilda’s didn’t and gave them both the support they required.”

However, in response, the council’s officers said with just ten pupils projected for the school and four for the nursery in September it was “difficult to project demand for places at the school”.

The report states: “Parental preference shifts year on year and parents

who may want their child to attend a school in the future may, for a wide

variety of reasons, change this preference at any point before the time

comes for them to submit applications.”

Officers said while the school is clearly valued strongly by some, of the 94 pupils living within the catchment area only 13 are attending St Hilda’s, with parental preference for St Benedict’s significantly outnumbering preference for St Hilda’s in all year groups.

While some parents have blamed the school’s leadership for failing to arrest the decline in pupils at the school, officers have highlighted that since 2011 there have been three Ofsted Inspections and each judged leadership and management at the School to be ‘Good’.