AN ANGRY Amesbury woman has mounted a campaign after fears were raised this week that the name of the historic Amesbury Junior School would be changing to St Mary and St Melor's.

A consultation is being launched by the governors and head teacher Rachel Clark, asking parents for their views on the possible change.

And a meeting has been organised for Monday to discuss, along with the school's name, possible changes in school uniform and extending the curriculum.

Miss Clark, however, has dismissed concerns that the name change will be introduced in September.

Mother-of-two Deborah Watkins, whose family has been attending the school over three generations, claims that any change in name will damage the school's history.

Now she has started a petition which already boasts more than 100 signatures.

Mrs Watkins fumed: "Amesbury Junior School is part of our history. Embossed in concrete in the wall of the school is the inscription, Amesbury School, 1900.

"This is the name the school has been known by for more than 100 years and frankly whether the name is changed this year, next year or in ten years time, I still feel that its name needs to be retained.

"We have always had very strong links with the church and I just don't see why the school needs to change its name.

"It's part of our history. We have had our village taken away, Amesbury is now a town, and we don't want to lose our school."

Mrs Watkins added: "Amesbury Junior School is part of our heritage and that's the way it should stay."

The possible changes in school uniform, from blue trousers and skirts to grey and from blue sweatshirts to green has also provoked concern with a handful of parents.

Parent Sue Cruse said: "Changing the school uniform is going to be a costly exercise for parents with more than one child at the school.

"As all parents know, children grow out of their clothes long before anything goes wrong with them. Navy blue is an easy colour to find, and it is fairly cheap to buy if you do not want a school logo on it, but the green uniform is an unusual colour and parents will be limited to where they can buy it.

"Changing the uniform is a costly proposal and parents will be forced to purchase it from the school."

Headteacher Miss Clark, said: "All we are doing at the moment is asking parents for their views about the idea of changing the school name.

"At the present time we are in the consultation process. We want to hear how people feel.

"Quite simply we are a Church of England school and we thought it might be good to have a name that reflects our church links.

"However, the parents who have responded appear to be split 50/50. The name will not be changing in September 2003, if at all."