Stunned pupils at Prospect Primary had one simple message to send to education chiefs yesterday: "Please don't close our school."

A teacher told The Royal Gazette yesterday that a steady stream of students had been asking worried questions all day about the future of their beloved school, where a sign at the front door declares: "Failure is not an option."

And a group of grinning girls approached this newspaper at the school gates at home time to chant in unison: "Please report that we love our school. Please don't shut it down."

A document revealing an idea to close five primary schools and build a new senior school was leaked into the public domain on Wednesday, prompting the Ministry of Education to release information on the proposal.

Prospect, East End, Gilbert Institute, Heron Bay and Dalton E. Tucker are the schools possibly facing the axe.

Parents and grandparents picking up children at Prospect, on Friendship Lane, Devonshire, yesterday afternoon said they were shocked by the suggestion.

One 39-year-old mother, from Paget, said: "I'm very surprised. My ten-year-old girl comes here. I feel sorry because I think this is a good school.

"I know the school, I know all the teachers and the principal. I have a three-year-old boy and I'd like him to come here because I know everybody."

Another mother, aged 37 and from Pembroke, said her five-year-old son was thriving at Prospect, as were her nieces and nephews.

"The principal is a very caring person. She would go out of her way to assist. I think it's a great school and the principal has done a lot for the school. But if closing it is for the bettering of the system, I will support it."

A 59-year-old grandmother, from Devonshire, said she would not back the proposal. "I'm not pleased with it," she said.

"They need to have a meeting about this to see what people think. My grandson is five and he seems to like it here. He seems to be doing quite well. The teachers are proud of him."

A 59-year-old man, collecting his seven-year-old granddaughter, said it would be a shame to see teachers out of jobs.

"It's a very nice school and she's doing pretty good. The teachers really care about her. I think if the system isn't broken, why try to fix it?"

But not all were against the idea. Another 37-year-old mother, from Pembroke, said: "I think it's a really good idea because I'm ready to take my child and transfer her.

"She's eight years old. She's been here for two years and her first year was really nice but the second and third year, I have not been too happy."

A Prospect teacher said it was a shame that the information had been leaked before a proper plan was in place. "We have enough going on in the lives of people right now, especially the children, and we have to really think about how people would be affected.

"It's never going to be a good thing to announce closing down a school but you really want the decision to be taken in a very humanitarian, nice way."