A petition has been launched to save a pre-school which is under threat of closure.

Parents at Ivingswood Academy, in Chesham, launched the petition, which has garnered around 300 signatures so far, after it was announced that the school could close in December this year due to “financial pressures”.

In a letter to parents and staff, the acting head teacher, chair of governors and the chair of trustees wrote that the pre-school income the school receives no longer covers running costs which has resulted in a “significant cost” to the school.

They also suggested that “increased pressures” on school budgets have rendered the pre-school “unsustainable”.

They said the proposal was “unanimously agreed” by the trustees of the White Hill Schools Trust, which is the legal entity responsible for the Greenway-based academy.

A member of the school’s PTA, who did not want to be named, said news of the closure was a “very big shame”.

She said: “We have a lot of parents who are local to the area and have a number of children within the school – quite a lot of them don’t drive and are not able to get to another primary school or pre-school.

“I would like to think that there are other ways that the financial difficulties could be overcome and I think there are other ways that could be looked at.

“I would hope that they would reconsider at least [as a result of the petition] and find a way around the difficulties to keep it open.”

The letter suggested that the closure would result in “some redundancies”.

It added: “Closure of the pre-school will also mean that funding meant for the whole school will no longer be put towards bridging the funding gap in pre-school.

“This will benefit the Academy in many ways by supporting the provision of staffing and resources throughout the Academy.

“We have looked at the finances over the past three years, and there has been a significant shortfall between income and costs every year.

“We have met with Buckinghamshire County Council to consider ways of increasing income, but this has unfortunately resulted in no viable proposals to close the gap in funding.”

A consultation, which closed this week, was launched by the school to ask the views of parents, staff and members of the community about the closure.

The petition will go to the academy's trustees, along with the consultation documents, who will now decide whether to submit a business case to the Department for Education for approval to close the pre-school.