Mrs Rathmell has welcomed the shake-up

Lynne Rathmell, of Coleham Primary, said shutting expensive schools would allow county council funding to be more evenly distributed.

Mrs Rathmell said her school was one of the worst funded in England and Wales.

The council has put forward plans to close 22 of Shropshire's schools and merge 16 others.

Excellent schools

Mrs Rathmell said a lot of the schools on the closure list were excellent and it was not a "small versus large" or "town versus country" issue.

"It's just an issue that the government doesn't give enough money to Shropshire to keep all the schools open, so something has to happen," she said.

"We are running at a deficit because it's not actually possible to keep things going with the money we are given."

Mrs Rathmell said pupils at Coleham were allocated �2,357 a year each, while others at smaller schools were allowed as much as �7,349 each.

"We get wonderful results at the end of the day," she said "some of the higher results in Shropshire, but that's through dint of a lot of unpaid work and lots of parent volunteers roped in."