CAERPHILLY council was last night forced to make a dramatic u-turn on plans to axe a number of teachers at Pontllanfraith after pupils took unprecedented action.

The planned redundancies, which were blamed on budget difficulties as a result of falling pupil rolls, are now on hold.

Pupils learnt that several of their teachers were facing redundancy yesterday morning, and a number of them staged a protest which quickly grew in size.

Pupils went into the school yard, shouting chants about saving their teachers in the pouring rain.

Some had written the names of their favourite teachers on their t-shirts and others had made banners.

One of the banners read: "This is our future, please donÕt throw it away."

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