PARENTS of children at primary schools which feed into Hurworth School are being invited to an information session on the school's plans.

Governors at the school want to expand to take 900 pupils and apply for foundation status from the Government.

This would give the school freedom from the local authority, and comes as Darlington Borough Council tries to close the school and merge it with Eastbourne Comprehensive in a £25m Church of England-sponsored academy.

Governors are opposed to the council's plan and, under their proposal, the school would own the buildings, gain charitable status and be able to oppose the local authority's plans with greater ease.

A meeting for current parents will be held tomorrow, at 6pm.

And a meeting for parents of children at feeder primary schools, members of the local community, local authority representatives and other stakeholders will be held at Hurworth School on Monday, at 6pm.

The school governors will meet on March 31, at 2pm, to consider any further responses and vote on the proposal to change status to a foundation school.

In the past, the borough council has told headteachers of feeder primaries that they would be "irresponsible and wrong" to send out letters on behalf of Hurworth School.

Last night, a spokeswoman for the council said the decision on whether to send the latest letter, detailing the information sessions, lay with headteachers.

A spokeswoman said: "We were approached by a number of headteachers concerned that they had been asked to circulate letters on behalf of Hurworth School with no prior warning or courtesy call.

"The headteachers were also concerned about the content of the letter and ensuring parents knew that it had not come from their school but was solely the view of Hurworth School."