Mr McDermid said staff were 'very shocked' at the news

Falling pupil numbers in the town has led education leaders in Sunderland to close the 600-pupil Usworth Comprehensive School.

They said it was the option that would cause the least amount of disruption and, with 42% surplus places, the school was unsustainable.

But parents, pupils and staff are planning a protest march on Sunderland civic centre.

Curriculum concerns

Headteacher Kevin McDermid said: "We are obviously very shocked at the proposal and there is a considerable amount of dismay among staff at the suddenness of it.

"Although this is the second round of a detailed consultation process we had not expected the second round to be reduced to a single, stark, option."

David Staples, education department, "We have an enormous number of surplus places in the Washington area.

"Some of the schools are getting to be very small and will start to have problems in delivering the full range of the curriculum.

"We have looked at the options that are available and the one that seems to present the least amount of disruption to the least number of people is to close the smallest of the schools in Washington, which is Usworth."