The final decision on whether popular Brighton schools Balfour Infant and Balfour Junior will be merged to form a new primary will be made next week.
Brighton and Hove City Council wants to amalgamate the two schools as part of an ongoing process of creating all-through primaries across the city.
It says merging schools helps children by removing a transition stage and providing better continuity.
In the past two years St Luke’s Primary, in Queen’s Park, and West Blatchington Primary, in Hangleton, have been created by the merger of pairs of infant and junior schools.
The two Balfour schools are on neighbouring sites in Balfour Road, in Fiveways, Brighton. Each is rated outstanding by Ofsted.
Parents have previously campaigned against moves to merge the schools and successfully persuaded the national Schools Adjudicator to block a council merger plan in 2002.
Councillor Vanessa Brown, the council’s cabinet member for education, will decide on the latest scheme at a meeting at Hove Town Hall on Monday, October 11, at 4pm.
At the same meeting on Monday she will decide whether to go ahead with proposals to permanently extend the age range at Benfield Junior school in Portslade to become another new primary.
A temporary expansion was put in place last summer to meet a shortage of places in the area.
Coun Brown also announced this week that the council had agreed to lease the Connaught Centre, in Connaught Road, Hove, to create another new primary school in Hove.
