The government has defended a decision to co-locate two schools within one building in Douglas after 20 complaints about the move.

A spokesman for the Department of Education and Children has said siting the St Thomas’s Church of England School on a shared campus with Scoill Vallajeelt at Farmhill would benefit the pupils from both institutions.

The proposal is to move the St Thomas’s children to the shared site at Meadow Crescent starting from 2018. Currently pupils at St Thomas’s, the island’s only Church of England school, on Finch Road in Douglas, have limited outdoor space and the buildings are old and in need of investment.

A Freedom of Information request to the DEC has revealed that, so far, 20 individuals have signed letters protesting the move. The department says it received no formal letters of support.

A DEC spokesman said: ’The decision to propose the co-location of the two schools was made in order to improve the educational experience of pupils.

’The pupils at St Thomas’s currently have no suitable facilities for the PE curriculum and have only two permanent classrooms on separate floors of an old Victorian building. Scoill Vallajeelt, on the other hand, has a separate sports hall, dining room and assembly hall. It has a large field and open, flexible classrooms.’

The department saysthe schools would benefit from working together and could share some facilities.

However, some parents have expressed concern about a potential religious divide between pupils caused by siting the two schools together. They have also expressed doubts about extra strain on facilities, pointing out Vallajeelt was expanded by adding extra classrooms some years ago without any corresponding expansion of other facilities such as the school hall, which operates two sittings at lunch times - a situation that’s standard in many primary schools.

Some parents would favour a simple merger of the two schools but the department has said this would not be possible as each school operates a different admissions policy, Vallajeelt from a catchment area and St Thomas’s from around the island.

’In line with the 2001 Education Act, affording an opportunity (as it does for the Catholic community) for parents to choose a faith-based school is important in a tolerant community. Further, the ethos and culture of each of the island’s schools is distinctive,’ the spokesman said.

The department added there was no reason to assume there would be any religious segregation, with pupils mixing in joint lunch and break times. It also said co-located schools had operated previously with the Bunscoill sharing sites at St John’s, though parents have said this was on a smaller and temporary scale.