THREE village schools in Kent have been told they are threatened with closure by education chiefs carrying out a review of primary school places across the county.

The news was broken to head teachers at Ripple, Langdon and Goodnestone just hours before the start of the Easter holidays.

Ripple has already faced the fear of closure and was saved after a campaign backed by the East Kent Mercury and is now ready to fight again.

Chairman of the governors, Andy Roberts, said that "the gloves were off" and the action group had already had a meeting to talk tactics.

He stressed; “This stinks of bully boy tactics. It was appalling that they told us about this proposal just an hour and a half before the end of term.

“This timing was deliberate to prevent the schools from having time to build up their defences before they go back after the holiday.”

Mr Roberts said since the successful Ripple campaign the school has doubled the number of pupils, had a successful OFSTED and is financially viable.

Langdon Primary head teacher Jon Fox said staff, parents and governors had been informed of the proposal.

He added: "As far as we are concerned it is only a proposal and we will wait patiently until the meeting on April 19 before we decide how to proceed.

“It is important for there to be no panic or knee-jerk reaction from the schools involved.”