A Bristol primary school earmarked for closure looks set to have fewer than 50 pupils during its final year.

The city council announced 14 months ago that it wanted to shut Stockwood Green School because there were too many primary school places in the area.

Since then, the already low pupil numbers have fallen as parents have found places for their children elsewhere, either across the local authority boundary in Bath & North East Somerset or in primaries in Hengrove and Brislington.

The school estimates it will have 44 children aged four to 11 on its roll from September.

The council has begun a six-week consultation on closing the school and meetings are being held for parents and public at the school today at 2.30pm and 7pm. Staff and governors will also be consulted.

Families fought an eight-month battle against the initial closure proposals, which were put forward as part of a citywide review of primary schools.

Some gave up once the review was approved, but others have vowed to keep on campaigning for the school.

They like the fact that Stockwood Green is a small school.

Mum Debra Shepherd, 34, whose younger son Kieran Ward, nine, is a pupil there, said: "We are going to fight to the last day.

"When I moved to Stockwood, I looked at the three schools and chose Stockwood Green as the best one. I don't think anything will change my opinion on that."

Mrs Shepherd said she was confident that the children who remained at the school for 2009-10 would continue to have a good education.

"The only good thing to come out of this is that they will have extra one-on-one attention for that final year. If the closure goes ahead, my son and his friends will have to go to Waycroft."

The three Stockwood schools, Stockwood Green, Waycroft and Burnbush, have been working closely together since the primary review came out and are looking at collaborative arrangements for the future.

Stockwood parents have been guaranteed places for their children at whichever of the other two schools they favour and the schools will be expanded to accommodate them.

The head of Stockwood Green, Lucy Wyatt, is leaving at the end of this term to become head at the new Weston Park/Bluebell Valley school in north Bristol.

Rachel Bowen, an assistant head at Waycroft, will be in charge for 2009-10.

The council's consultation papers for the closure state: "It is the city council's view that the number of children in the area is no longer sufficient to support three schools.

"A high level of surplus places diverts money away from teaching and learning.

"Even if Stockwood Green were full it is a very small school and whilst standards have been successfully maintained the cost per pupil would always greatly exceed that for larger schools serving similar communities."

Stockwood Green has room for 119 children, so if numbers drop to 44 that will mean 63 per cent of places are empty.

Chairman of governors Mike Landen said the governors had reluctantly decided not to continue to oppose closure.

"Unfortunately, since the proposal to close the school as part of the Primary Review, followed by the cabinet decision to implement the closure, it is not surprising that the number of pupils at the school has fallen.

"We are however responding to the consultation stating how disgracefully our school was misrepresented during the Primary Review. Information about the school was published that was inaccurate and designed to cause as much damage as possible. No school in Bristol should ever be treated as badly as this in the future."