Parents were set to launch an 11th-hour High Court battle today to stop the shake-up of Oxford schools, writes Mark Templeton.

Campaigners fighting plans to scrap the city's middle school system vowed to take the matter to judicial review if today's D-day meeting was adjourned.

Members of the Schools Organisation Committee (SOC), which was due to meet this morning to vote on whether or not to get rid of the current three-tier system, are expected to delay the matter until September, for further reports to be compiled. But an unnamed member of the Save Our Schools group will seek a judicial review if the matter is delayed or is not decided during the two-day meeting, and a London-based lawyer will be instructed to take up the case.

The group said regulations state that the SOC must make a decision within two months of the end of the objection period, which would be July 10.

It also said that the committee must have full financial information to make its decision and not give conditional approval on the strength of finances coming through. A 10m shortfall in funding for the project has already been identified and the future of the joint Roman Catholic and Church of England school, St Augustine's, has not been finalised.

A briefing by SOC chairman Cllr Janet Morgan to her Liberal Democrat colleagues revealed difficulties facing the committee, including a briefing leaflet to parents that was four months late and an education committee meeting which was postponed because there was not enough financial information. If the SOC does go ahead with the meeting today, but fails to reach a decision, the matter will go before a Government-appointed adjudicator.