A PUBLIC meeting is taking place tonight at Gwernyfed High School as it steps up a campaign to save it from closure.

The 7.30pm meeting at the school's drama studio tonight (Weds, March 25)

comes just 24 hours after Powys County Council's cabinet agreed to begin a consultation on closing both it and Brecon High School.

Both schools would be replaced by a new £50 million 11 to 16 school with 900 pupils as part of the proposed Beacons Learning Campus to be built on the current site of Brecon High. The campus would also include six form academy and vocational college, run by the NPTC college.

Reverend Ian Charlesworth, chair of Gwernyfed's governing body, said: "Members of the wider community, parents, future parents, former parents, current, future or former students and anyone else who has a view are encouraged to join us."

The Three Cocks school has said it wants to see secondary education retained in the Gwernyfed catchment area.

The cabinet also agreed to consult on its proposal to remove Welsh first language education from Brecon from September 2016. The school's Welsh streams would then transfer to Builth Wells High School.

Brecon councillor David Meredith said the governors of Brecon High had always intended the proposed new school building would continue to provide bilingual education.

Under the plans both Gwernyfed and Brecon High will close in summer 2017 and re-open as a new school, but based on their separate sites from September 2017. It is planned they would move to the new building from September 2018.

Sixth form education would also cease at both schools from summer 2017, with the NPTC college providing all post 16 education from that September.

The cabinet also agreed to a review of secondary education in Builth Wells and Llandrindod Wells to be carried out along with a review of post-16 provision in the Ystradgynlais area, with business cases for both projects to be prepared by July.

Those could see the sixth form at Maesydderwen lost while both Llandrindod and Builth Wells high schools are at risk of closure. The council would instead open a bilingual school, with a sixth form, to serve Mid Powys.

A review of secondary education to include Welsh-medium in North Powys to explore the possibility of establishing at least one Welsh-medium secondary school in the area, and assessing the viability of dual-stream provision was also agreed. A business case will be considered by cabinet in September.

For a full report of the cabinet meeting and other reaction to the council's proposals see this week's Brecon & Radnor Express - on sale now