Parents and pupils at a deaf school which is threatened with closure are demanding education bosses consider options to save it.

Children at Thorn Park School for the Deaf, in Heaton, Bradford, could be moved onto mainstream school sites as part of a review of special needs education in the district

Education Bradford, the contractor which runs the district's education services, has come up with three models for the future of deaf children in the district which would all see staff and students moved away from the existing school onto a mainstream school site.

However there is no formal proposal for Thorn Park to be retained as it is. Now parents have asked education officers and Councillors why this is not being considered.

Dave Muir, the school's former headteacher who has two daughters at the school, said: "Denise Faulconbridge from Education Bradford has mentioned that there is a possibility of Thorn Park School remaining where it is. So where is it in the models? Why is retaining the school as it is not an option according to the present models."

Education Bradford will produce a report to Bradford Council's executive in September at the end of a consultation period on its three models. The first option it has developed would see Thorn Park retained as an all age specialist school for deaf pupils and the second option would see the school reduced to cater for two to 11-year-olds before pupils go onto Nab Wood School in Cottingley, which is the only mainstream secondary in the district which has provision for specialist deaf teaching.

Now Bradford Councillors have been presented with a third option, at a meeting this week, which would see Thorn Park School for the Deaf close and replaced with two deaf centres of excellence for primary and secondary age pupils.

The model was produced by Education Bradford after being developed by teachers at the school.

However parents and a teacher from Thorn Park School spoke out against the latest plan at the public meeting because Education Bradford had introduced Nab Wood School as the suggested location for the Secondary school age centre of excellence.

Speaking at the Council's Young People and Education Improvement Committee, Thorn Park teacher Kate Challis, said: "The staff's preferred option would be for the school to stay open but model three has been put together in the likelihood that it will close."

Parents also voiced fears over plans for their children to be moved to Nab Wood School. Tony Smith of Baildon said: "First of all we don't see why a school which was described by Ofsted as a 'sound and improving' should be closed.

Phil Green, Bradford Council's director of education said that no decision on the future of deaf education had been made and the results of the consultation would be presented in September.