PARENTS fighting to keep a Gwent village school open collected a 600-name petition against the plan.

Pupils from Argoed Primary and their parents have collected the signatures in the village and at Blackwood's Asda store. Now they intend to go to Cardiff to present the petition to their Assembly Member, Irene James.

Caerphilly council is proposing to close the school, which has 39 pupils, in September 2007.

The children would then be transferred to Markham Primary. The public consultation period on closing the school finished in February. The authority said yesterday that a decision about the school will be made at a meeting of the cabinet within the next month.

Frances Thompson, who is chairwoman of the governing body at Argoed Primary and has two children at the school, said: "We are presenting this petition to the Assembly in the hope that it will help our cause.

"We are also going to invite all nine members of Caerphilly council's cabinet to come to see the school for themselves."

The parents are also holding another public meeting this week, to discuss the next steps in their desperate bid to save the village's only school.

That will be held at Argoed Village Hall at 7pm on Friday. Anyone is welcome.

Islwyn AM Irene James said: "Argoed is an excellent primary school that has outstanding levels of teaching and pupil performance and has had many successes over the years. I'm supporting the campaign to keep Argoed school open."