AS the deadline for admissions comes to a close the future of St Andrew’s Infant School is looking bright after Surrey County Council dropped a consultation on the potential closure of the school this week.

And in a statement released by the Diocese of Guildford’s board of education, the diocese has agreed emergency funding to underwrite any costs of staffing St Andrew’s reception class for 2016/17 not covered by formula funding.

The threat to close St Andrew’s, a 150-year-old Church of England infant school in the heart of Farnham, comes after a drop in the number of admissions to its September 2016 reception class.

With less than half the number of new reception pupils required to make the school viable signed up for this September, the school has until midnight tonight (Friday,) to lift this number to 30.

However, with the immediate threat to the school lifted, St Andrew’s was hopeful of reaching this target after an open day on Wednesday was met with a “great response” from new and returning parents.

Headteacher Monique Clark said: “It is very positive for our school and I think it gives us time to reflect and to look forward - it would be nice that out of all of this comes the fact that there is a strategic plan put into place.

“We are delighted, there were lots of tears and staff are very happy with the news and very relieved. I think it would be a loss to Farnham, there is something really special about the school and when I came here to have a look round it sold me instantly and I have enjoyed every moment of it.

“I have the most outstanding teaching team here and I have no worries in my team. I am very proud. It will be nice for us just to get back to the daily joys of running a school, normality sounds good. I just want to get the team back into providing the outstanding education we do for them.”

The diocese are looking at 2016/17 as an interim year, giving all parties breathing space to consider future options – including solving the key issue of where pupils will go to after graduating from year three, with only limited places available at the infant school’s historic feeder school South Farnham Junior School.

In a statement sent to the St Andrew’s Parents Group on Tuesday evening, the diocese said the long-term future of the school is still not yet clear and will be subject to wider considerations including the overall surplus of school places in the Farnham area and issues around school funding.

The diocese added it is continuing to work with Surrey County Council to determine what these future options may be.

Peter Nowak, whose daughter Tiffy attends the school, has already starting preparing for his youngest daughter to join St Andrew’s in 2017.

“We’ve always hoped that she’s going to go here, this is where her younger sister is and she says ‘I want to go to Tiffy’s school too’,” he said.

“It has always been our preference, it’s always been what we wanted to do. I’m hoping we are not going to go through the same thing next year.

“When we applied for a place for Tiffy two years ago, it was oversubscribed and we sort of realised then, that is was a popular school. So we were very surprised to hear the following year they couldn’t even fill all the reception spaces.”

In response to a question put forward by parents regarding the decision to reject Sir Andrew Carter’s offer for St Andrew’s to join the South Farnham Educational Trust (SFET), the diocese reiterated that if it had joined the academy, St Andrew’s would have been a small school in a large multi-school academy trust, prey to South Farnham’s own distinctive character, ethos and ways of working.

“Protecting St Andrew’s Christian character was therefore a key consideration for the Diocese during these discussions,” added the diocese’s statement.

“Multi-academy trusts are governed by articles of association, and templates are agreed nationally by the Department for Education and the Church of England where trusts include church schools.

“It became clear that SFET would not accept the nationally agreed articles in full, which left the diocese with a concern that, over time, St Andrew’s distinctive Christian character might be eroded.”

Sam Powell, a member of St Andrew’s parent group fighting to save the infant school, said: “We are all in it together. There has been loads of work from everyone in this group, they’ve all done different things, social media and the technicalities of dealing with Dioceses or Surrey County Council.

“Everyone has done all that they can do. We just want now everyone within the school to come together and work towards the best possible outcome but there is still lots of work to do.”