A small Bristol independent school is making cuts to try to ensure its survival.

St Ursula's School is shutting its nursery and reducing six junior classes to three from September.

The school in Westbury-on-Trym says there will be no structural changes to its senior school.

In a statement, head teacher Lynette Carter said restructuring was aimed at securing the co-educational school's future.

St Ursula's, which has 240 pupils aged three to 16, is the second fee-charging school in the city to announce it is tightening its belt.

Last month, Clifton High School began a redundancy programme to ensure its survival.

Bristol has an above average number of independent schools, even after two of them switched back to the state sector last September, and the market is competitive.

Most of them say they have not yet been too affected by the economic crisis, but they expect to feel its effects later in the downturn.

Both St Ursula's and Clifton High are feeling the pinch at junior school level.

St Ursula's head teacher Lynette Carter said: "Like many other independent schools with junior departments, we have found in the last couple of years that fewer parents are committing themselves to independent education at the earliest stages of their children's school career. Some classes in our junior school have become smaller than is healthy for a truly stimulating educational environment.

"The changes we are introducing from September will ensure that all the children are taught in groups which are large enough for the kind of lively interaction that all children need. The Junior School will be reorganised into four classes: Reception; Years 1 and 2; Years 3 and 4; and Years 5 and 6. The merged classes will average about 15 pupils each."

Parents and staff were told of the changes, which included closing the Little Bears nursery, on Friday. The number of jobs that will go among the school's 50 teaching staff has not been revealed.

Mrs Carter said 2009-10 junior school fees of £2,075 a term would be frozen for the first time in living memory.

This year's £2,800 senior school fees will go up by 3.5 per cent.

Mrs Carter said: "The governors, staff and I remain both committed to and confident in the future of high-quality independent education at St Ursula's, Bristol's only non-selective and co-educational independent school".