THE fight to save the county’s smallest school goes to the wire next week with only a council cabinet vote effectively able to keep Dilwyn Primary open.

But a last gasp reprieve is unlikely with the cabinet being told that there is no “sustainable or robust” solution to Dilwyn’s projected pupil losses.

Not even a rescue package pitched by top-performing St Mary’s RC High – and a strong show of community support – seems enough to make the numbers add up.

Education bosses have done their homework to tell the cabinet on Monday that right now those numbers mean Dilwyn costs the county £5,849 in funding per pupil against the £3,666 average for the county.

The likely loss of Dilwyn is not down to any overall policy aimed at shutting small schools.

Instead, Dilwyn has crossed the 36-or-fewer pupil threshold the council has set to trigger talks over a school’s future.

Dilwyn has had low numbers for some time and a review showed projected trends were not going to see those numbers reach figures that gave the school some shot at a future.

St Mary’s saw the school as a possible partner.

But even a test of Dilwyn’s potential to attract Catholic pupils – based on baptism records for the Weobley, Kington, and Leominster areas – could not make the numbers stack up, an outcome with which the Archdiocese of Cardiff agrees.

Not enough pupils from Dilwyn’s overall catchment area attend the school, and surrounding primaries have spare spaces of their own, the report says.

Nor, the cabinet will hear, is there any amalgamation option in the offing for Dilwyn, something for which the consultation found “very little” support in any event.