Campaigners at Shipley C of E First School were celebrating today after news that their school looks set to win a last-minute reprieve from the Education Authority.

Under original proposals, the school was earmarked as a primary school based at its current site, but parents and teachers received a jolt in June when a second round of proposals recommended the school be scrapped.

Parent Christine Whiteley said: "This is fantastic news. It seems like the council has done a U-turn but it's good to see that the hard work of campaigners seems to have paid off.

I'm sure everyone will be very pleased about the decision."

Caroline Connelly, of the Shipley C of E Friends Association, said: "This is superb - at last it seems the authority has listened to us.

"Keeping the school open will be brilliant for the Shipley community and I'm so pleased that all our hard work has not gone to waste."

Meanwhile, the fate of Delf Hill Middle, Foxhill First and Shipden Head schools - which originally thought to be safe, but now threatened with closure - is being kept under wraps.

Education chiefs say the move from first, middle and upper to primary and secondary is vital to guarantee the best possible school system for the district's youngsters.

But the final announcement is bound to cause controversy among communities that have fought tooth and nail to save their schools.

The schools review story has lurched through an astonishing number of twists and turns since the Council announced it would be joining with all but a handful of local authorities and moving to two tier system.

When it was first unveiled in March a number of schools, such as Thornbury Middle, Pollard Park Middle, Hutton Middle, Bolton Lane First, Ilkely Middle and Allerton Middle were earmarked for closure.

However, the Council performed a U-turn in June and said it would be looking again at about 70 of their proposals.

Full list of Bradford's upcoming school changes.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.