A new primary school planned for Bradford now looks unlikely to open after parents opted to send children to established schools.

Waverley Primary was to have taken over the site of closing Waverley Middle School and would have had 60 children in each year.

But only five months before it is due to open, so few parents have put their children's names down that Bradford Council now wants to increase the sizes of two existing primary schools on the same site instead.

Both Farnham and Grange Road Primary Schools look set to have an extra class from September, with Farnham moving into the Waverley Middle buildings.

The Council is now set to hold a consultation exercise following the plan's approval at its Executive Committee today.

Teachers - including a new head teacher - who would have worked at the new school have now gone back into the 'pot' of unallocated teachers in a bid to find new jobs.

And parent Tara Najib, who has two children at Farnham Primary, condemned the Council's delay and lack of information about what is happening.

"Every single time we hear anything there's a different plan," she said.

Her daughter Sumaira Ayub, who is in Year Five, has spent this year being taught in a music block within Waverley Middle School because there is not enough room in the Farnham site.

"There are no toilets in the block so she has to come over to the school to use the toilet and for assemblies, sometimes if it's raining the children arrive soaked.

"It's these children who have suffered and we and they still don't know where they will be next year."

Ian Murch, of the Bradford branch of the teaching union the NUT, said: "Because no-one had looked sufficiently into the numbers of the area, these teachers had been appointed to a school which was never going to be viable.

"This is a situation we wish we hadn't been in."

All the new schools could face problems with low numbers, he said.

Bradford Council said its predictions of a falling birth rate would mean the two existing Lidget Green primary schools would be able to meet demands for places in the area, and consultation will take place.

Without a new primary, there is a shortfall of 58 places for local children, but they could be accommodated if the two existing schools increase their sizes to meet this one-year bulge.

Councillor Susanne Rooney, executive member for education, said: "We have listened to parents' wishes throughout the whole reorganisation process and tried to bring forward proposals which meet local needs. This is what we have done here."

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