MILITARY families are campaigning to keep a school open that is now under threat of closure after MOD cut funding because of tiny class sizes.

Just 20 pupils went to Lypiatt primary school in Corsham last year, which is the only school in the UK open for military families repatriated to the UK after a family breakdown or death.

An MOD education support fund of £60k relied upon by the school, that is located next to Services Cotswold Centre, has been stripped from the budget, plunging the future of the school into uncertainty.

Pupils often stay at the school for just months while their families receive crisis support, causing fluctuating pupil numbers between just three and 30 pupils over a school year.

It is predicted that by 2021 the school will be half a million pounds in deficit and Wiltshire Council has launched a consultation that proposes closing the school in March 2019 if a solution can’t be found.

Campaigners want funding to be reinstated and the school to be saved, saying that vulnerable children who have grown up abroad will not be supported correctly if paced in mainstream schools.

Andy Newman, GMB trade union branch secretary, said: “GMB believes that there is a social contract with the women and men in our armed forces, the military covenant, that they and their families will be supported, in exchange for the sacrifices they make. GMB calls on the MoD to honour that obligation towards the children of service families.

“In many cases the children have been exposed to parents themselves suffering from PTSD, related to military deployment.”

In the consultation on the school, Wiltshire Council stated: “In 2016, OFSTED assessed the school as Good. Inspectors reported that all children of service families found high-quality care and success during the typically short time they were at the School. The low pupil numbers and high level of fluctuation has led to increasing levels of concern from staff and governors and Wiltshire Council about the financial viability. However, the key issue is that funding allocated through the local funding formula for schools, which mirrors the national funding formula, cannot sustain the school’s current staff structure without creating a large deficit as there are insufficient pupil numbers at the school for it to attract viable levels of funding.”