DEFIANT staff at Lowick's tiny village primary will be opening-up the classrooms as usual next term even though their official bid to save the school was firmly rejected this week.

A Government-appointed independent schools' adjudicator ruled that it was too late to save the 19-pupil primary from closure.

But head teacher Shirley Rainbow said Lowick would open anyway as a non fee-paying independent school on Wednesday.

"They can only stand by and watch us. We can forget about fighting and focus on starting this school. It will be a delight and a pleasure.

"For so long our future has been in the hands of others, now the future of the school is in our hands. We stand or fall together and we are a great team. No one else knows this team but they will see, if they put all their energy into the school, if they don't have to fight as well, things will happen."

An appeal from Lowick prompted the adjudicator to assess their bid to relaunch as Lowick New School a state-funded school and a community facility based on the co-operative principals of self-help, democracy and equality.

Lowick New was designed to replace Lowick C of E School that Cumbria County Council's Schools Organisation Committee had already decided to close, having originally put it forward for closure in 1999.

The ruling of the adjudicator follows Lowick's failed attempt to persuade the SOC a collective of councillors, schools and church representatives to back Lowick New School at its July meeting. The committee ruled that the county did not need any new school places and the bid did not represent an efficient use of resources.

Now adjudicator Dr Philip Hunter has backed SOC's stance, concluding that there was "no prospect of the school opening in September".

"There is now less than a fortnight before the proposed date for opening yet there is no head teacher, no secure financial base and no reasonable prospect of recruiting enough pupils to create a viable school it is too late to repair the damage."

The Lowick and Blawith Educational Trust said the conclusion was "completely mystifying" since the head teacher, support staff, governors and trustees were all on board the Lowick New School bid.

"We see that he has failed to grasp the quality of our proposals for the future of the school," said Trust chairman Noel Spendlove. "We note too that his pronouncements are hedged with bureaucratic justification."

In fear of this bad news from the education officials, Lowick has successfully applied for independent schools status from the Department for Education and Skills.

But it will now face a tougher battle to keep the school financially buoyant without state support and without fees from parents something it wants to avoid. It has backing from the Co-operative retail group and the Co-operative Schools Movement and expects to earn money from its community facility, however only time will tell if it can generate enough cash.

CCC has the right to move in to remove its property including tables and chairs but a resolute Miss Rainbow said the school "had enough" to start with.

"What we haven't got we will get together to solve the problems and build from there. We have the promise of resources from people you wouldn't believe. Parents have been very supportive and I'm sure most of the children will turn up on Wednesday.

"It has proved impossible to prove our proposals would work. Now is our opportunity to realise our vision. Watch us."