Anxious parents and residents of St Martin will have to wait another two weeks to hear the fate of the village school that is threatened with closure.

The board of directors of the Keskowethyans Multi-Academy Trust, which runs St Martin-in-Meneage School along with four other primaries on the Lizard Peninsula, met on Monday with a view to deciding whether to go ahead with the planned closure.

The directors had previously recommended that they seek permission from the Department for Education to close the school with effect from the end of this school year, in July, and began a period of formal consultation with parents, staff and the wider community that ended last Thursday.

However, a final decision has now been deferred for another two weeks, after the board failed to reach a verdict, with another meeting now scheduled in a fortnight.

A statement issued to the Packet on behalf of Pam Miller, chair of the board of directors, Keskowethyans Multi-Academy Trust, on Tuesday reads: "No decision over the future of St Martin-in-Meneage School was taken at our board meeting last night. There will be a further meeting in two weeks’ time.

"We will be writing to parents this week to explain the current situation."

On Saturday MP Derek Thomas met with parents and community members.

It is understood that he promised to write to the Secretary of State for Education and the Schools Commissioner for the South West, asking that an "immediate pause" be taken in any request to close the school and for the parents and community to be given three years to firm up the school's position.

The Packet contacted Mr Thomas but he refused to comment. 

The school's directors have previously described the closure of the school as "the only realistic option," stating 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."

Pupil numbers have dropped to 12, with the figure due to further reduce to ten in September. The proposal is that these pupils are relocated to Manaccan Primary School, ten minutes' away by car.

However, parents have argued that with a good marketing strategy and closer interaction with the school, the problem could be turned around. They want to see a nursery class created - particularly as all three-year-olds can now receive 30 hours of government funded free nursery education - that would bolster pupil numbers to then progress through the school.