A SCHOOL has dropped its campaign to stay open after receiving assurances about the future.

A special meeting of Middlesbrough Borough Council's cabinet next week will give the go-ahead for closure of Langbaurgh and Keldhome secondary schools - and their replacement with a city academy.

The move is expected to be rubber-stamped at a follow-up meeting of the school organisation committee, which is chaired by Councillor Geoff Connolly, chairman of the local education authority.

On Tuesday, councillors will be asked to agree to submit a formal proposal for closure of the schools to the school organisation committee, to be replaced by a city academy, and to publish the relevant statutory notices.

The schools are to be closed because of the high number of surplus places, their record of educational achievement and value for money criteria.

A city academy, perhaps the first to be built in the UK, guarantees a new £10m, 1,200-place school at no cost to the council, funded by the Government and private sponsors, Amey Plc.

Langbaurgh School launched a campaign to stay open, helped by a petition organised by the pupils.

A spokesman for the governors said last night: "The Langbaurgh School governors feel that now that there is a definite plan for the closure, rather than a vacuum, and that a city academy will attract a significant sum of money.

"We are happy to work towards an evolutionary change that minimises any disruption to either pupils or staff in the interests of continually improving educational attainment in east Middlesbrough, and avoids the perils of a totally fresh start."

Proposals for the closure of the schools, and neighbouring St Anthony's, were withdrawn in September to be replaced by separate proposals for Langbaurgh, Keldholme and the St Anthony's