It has been educating children for 138 years but St Martin-in-Meneage Primary School could be closed for good in a matter of weeks.

The board responsible for the primary school on the Lizard Peninsula is recommending that it seeks permission from the Department for Education to close the school with effect from the end of this school year, in July.

A period of formal consultation has now been launched with parents, staff and the wider community that will run until June 22.

At the end of this time the board of the Keskowethyans Multi-Academy Trust, which oversees the running of St Martin along with four other primary schools, will meet to decide on whether the application to the DfE should be made, in light of the responses to the consultation.

However, in documents published earlier this month the board states that education of pupils at all the schools in its responsibility was the "paramount consideration," and that: "The board has reluctantly formed the view that there are no remaining options for the continuation of St Martin-in-Meneage which would be other than detrimental to this goal."

It adds that this "was not the board's original suggestion" but had "become the only realistic option available."

As keeping the school open has been declared "not a viable option," other options that have been considered and rejected include "mothballing" the school by moving pupils to partner school Manaccan but keeping St Martin's registration and uniforms for its pupils, but the consultation document claims the majority of parents and carers felt this was unlikely to be reversed in the future and just a step on the road to ultimate closure.

The suggestion from parents and carers to split the infant and junior classes between two sites, with key stage one pupils learning from Manaccan and key stage two from St Martin was felt to be against current government policy and "did not address the underlying issue of pupil numbers."

This decision over the future of St Martin School has been brought to the fore by a fall in pupil numbers to just 12, which would be further reduced to ten in September, compounded by the resignation of two staff members to take up alternative posts elsewhere in the trust.

"Senior leaders remain concerned that the very small class sizes limit the education experience of the children," the board has stated, adding that the amount of financial support that was necessary to keep St Martin running would, over the longer term, "affect the educational provision and viability" of the other schools in the trust.

Should the school ultimately close, all current pupils will be offered places at one of the other schools within the multi-academy trust, with Manaccan being the closest at approximately three miles away, or could apply for a place at any other local school.

Subject to formal consultation, it is currently expected that all staff can be redeployed to other schools in the trust.

In terms of the school grounds and buildings, part is rented from the Trelowarren Estate and the remainder is owned by the academy trust, but as publicly funded land it would be up to the Secretary of State for Education to decide what would happen to it. The trust board has stated that it plans to ask for the school playing fields to be kept by the trust, for use by local schools - potentially as a residential and activity centre.