Campaigners are set to lobby school governors before a decisive meeting tonight in a last ditch bid to stop controversial school trust plans.

The NUT, which has 27 members among the 45 staff at Norlington School for Boys in Leyton, is hoping to halt proposals for the school to be taken out of local authority control.

Governors at the Norlington Road School will tonight make a final decision on whether to go ahead with the plan.

The council is backing a move which will see trustes headed by the Institute of education taking over the running of Norlington and George Mitchell All-Through School.

Some parents, teachers and local residents have fought bitterly against the plans since they first came to light in 2007.

In a statement issued jointly with members of the University and College Union (UCU) at the Institute, the NUT said: “Our unions are opposed to the government’s policy of converting community schools into privately-run academies and trusts.

“We believe that democratically elected and accountable local authorities should control state schools and that teachers should be the employees of the local council.

“We believe that the Institute of Education has an important role to play in the training of teachers for our schools.

“We do not believe, however, that the Institute should be taking the role of an education authority to run a school.”

Teachers at Norlington also staged three days of walkouts last week in protest at the plans, following two one-day strikes earlier this year.

They fear the plans will not be beneficial to pupils and have also objected to the change of employer.

Local residents have also opposed plans to build a new school to house Norlington on part of Leyton Sports Ground as they fear it will have a detrimental impact on the area.

The plans fall under the Government's Building Schools for the Future scheme, which aims to rebuild or refurbish every state secondary school in the UK.

Follow the Waltham Forest Guardian on Twitter - click here.