Anger over closure plans

Brian Oakley is the county's National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) representative.

He said the situation was difficult, but school rolls were falling and closures were the way to deal with it.

The National Union of Teachers in the county said it was an "extremely worrying time" for senior teachers.

Job losses

Mr Oakley said if nothing was done teachers' jobs would just dwindle and that was his main concern.

"I know others will say the main concern should be pupils and clearly I've got that concern, but my main concern as a trade unionist is to my members," he added.

Tony Pearce, the regional organiser for the National Union of Teachers (NUT) in Shropshire, said his members were very concerned about the proposals and the union would be doing whatever it could to help them through it.

"For senior members of staff, heads and deputies it's an extremely worrying time because they are not sure whether they are going to continue to be a head teacher or not, or even if they will have a job in the future," he said.

Mr Oakley said it was going to be a massive upheaval for pupils and a lot of teachers but they were faced with a situation where numbers were falling and the problem had to be addressed.

He added that now that the announcements have been made parents might not send their children to the school threatened with closure.

"I think that has a potential of being quite devastating and will have a rapid effect on a lot of schools," he added.

Falling pupil numbers mean that 25% of all primary school places could be vacant by 2012, equating to 5,450 empty seats, according to council figures.

The schools under threat and the others proposed for amalgamation account for 7.4% of the primary school population in the county excluding Telford. There are 141 primary schools under the council's jurisdiction.

It is thought the closures would save about �733,000 in the first year and �1.8m in the second.

A public consultation will take place from 4 February to 18 April with a final decision taken in July.

Changes will come into effect in September 2009.