THE former headteacher of a half-empty Chester high school due to close next year this week defended the reputation of his beloved secondary.

Dr David Gower spoke exclusively to the Chronicle this week after we broke the news that Cheshire County Council planned to close Kingsway High School due to the fall in pupil numbers and a financial crisis which has left the school £300,000 in the red.

He expressed fears for the education of pupils, who would be spread across other schools, and offered words of support to parents left shocked by news of the closure.

Many have spent the past week jamming the county council's switchboard asking where their children will be placed if Kingsway closes.

Students have also taken to the streets with campaign posters and last week took part in a march through Chester to halt the closure of Kingsway, which could be worth £15m to a developer.

Among those worst affected would be students ready to start their GCSEs/A-levels and more than 40 primary school pupils who were recently told they had secured a place at Kingsway High for September.

A meeting of Chester headteachers will be held today in a bid to reallocate places for the youngsters and parents will be asked to choose two alternative schools.

Governors blame the planned closure on falling pupil numbers and the school's failure to balance its budget. Chairman Kath Lloyd says the board was put under pressure by the county council to deal with its future.

Kingsway is the victim of a falling birth rate, with 239 surplus places and just 525 pupils on roll - the number of pupils seeking admission has almost halved in one year from 79 to 44.

Dr Gower, who left his post in February, says he feels for parents and can understand their anger and bemusement.

He fears Kingsway students will be bussed to Blacon High, which has 300 surplus places, if Kingsway closes.

'I was head at Kingsway from 1989 until very recently, nearly 15 years altogether. The people there - students and staff, parents and governors - are still very important to me,' said Dr Gower.

'Even more important than the future of Kingsway itself is the education of children in Newton, Hoole and the rest of Chester.

'They are entitled to a high-quality education which meets their needs. It is the responsibility of the LEA to provide enough school places.

'There can be no doubt about the quality of education at Kingsway. When the school was inspected 15 months ago, the inspector in charge said 'you won't find better teachers anywhere'.'

Dr Gower, who understands the difficulty of the governing body's decision, said: 'The LEA has a problem. According to last week's Chronicle, there are 715 surplus places in Chester.

'Basically, that means buildings which could house 715 more students. About 200 spare places are at King-sway, making the school expensive to run. Most of the others are at Blacon (300 places) and Queen's Park High in Handbridge.

'The 525-odd students in Kingsway could just about squash into the other schools, so long as they took on extra teachers.

'Is this a good idea? It means that Kingsway students would bear the brunt of a Chester-wide problem: falling pupil numbers.

'If Kingsway closes, they would have to travel across the city. Hoole and Newton children would just have to fit in wherever they could find a space. That cannot be fair.'

Dr Gower says Kingsway should not be facing the axe due to its inclusive nature and its acceptance of special-needs pupils.

'Kingsway has some striking features,' he said. 'In particular, it is powerfully inclusive. At a time when other schools are having to think about what this means, Kingsway can demonstrate its expertise.

'Basically, it means that every student gets a fair deal. You can see this in Kingsway's 1996 inspection report, which said 'overall, the school is notable in that it succeeds with pupils of every ability'.

'It takes substantial professional skill on the part of teachers to make an inclusive school work; to achieve examination results like Kingsway's, which represent a good level of achievement by almost every pupil. If the school closes, much of that expertise will be lost.'

He added: 'Obviously education in Chester needs to be cost-effective, to make the best use of the money available, but simply closing one school because numbers there happen to have fallen may not be the right answer.

'There are all sorts of alternatives which don't put local children at a disadvantage. We need a proper re-view so that local people can weigh up the alternatives.'

Cheshire County Council will decide today whether to start a Kingsway closure public consultation.