Teachers at two schools for vulnerable children that are threatened with closure are campaigning for them to be saved.

Executive members of Oxfordshire County Council were deciding on December 10 whether to press ahead with plans to close Iffley Mead School, in Oxford, and Woodeaton Manor School, which cater for pupils with special educational needs.

Falling pupil numbers at the schools have led to proposals to replace them with another school at a different site, or to amalgamate both on one of the existing sites.

The plans, contained in a report prepared by council officers, received a cold response from teaching staff and governors of the schools who accused the council of running the service down by refusing to admit children needing specialist help.

Thirty staff members and governors at Iffley Mead have signed a petition to save the school, which recently received an excellent report from Ofsted.

A letter by teacher Fran Swainton and governor Chris Kyle described staff at Iffley Mead as "severely demoralised" and warned that a decision to close the two schools would "leave our present and future vulnerable pupils without specialist provision across the county".

The letter calls for an audit to assess the viability of keeping the schools open, and recommend that both schools be kept open and the county increase the number of pupils receiving specialist help in line with demand.

Tim Burns, a mathematics teacher at Woodeaton, said: "The consultation is flawed because it doesn't ask the primary and secondary head teachers about what they feel about inclusion at their schools. There's a consensus of opinion within our school that the proposals going forward are flawed.

"The report appears to be financially-driven and there doesn't seem to be much notice taken of the pupils within our care."

The report said: "The financial problems likely to be faced by Woodeaton would mean that they would be unable to employ enough teachers and other staff to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, and carry out all the functions normally expected of a school."

Woodeaton is the only residential special school in the county. Both could be closed by September next year.