Parents of students distraught at having to abandon learning Japanese after Tavistock College announced it is pulling it from the curriculum are meeting with the college principal to try to persuade the college to change its mind.

So far, 270 signatures have been collected on a petition calling on the school to have a rethink, after it announced suddenly to parents that it was removing Japanese from the curriculum.

Japanese has been a speciality at the college for more than 20 years.

There is particular dismay among parents of children in Year 8 who have studied the subject for two years and have now been told they cannot take their GCSE in the subject.

Parent Kirsten Wake said: ‘I have a son in Year 8, who has worked extremely hard in this subject and is now being disadvantaged in his GCSE options choice. If he wants to continue to study languages he will have missed out on two years of teaching and will be starting at a different place to other language students.

‘He chose Japanese for his options, when the college recently sent out the options forms and in that short space of time they say they are cancelling the whole language provision. Kneejerk reaction? Would they have done the same if teachers in another subject were leaving? These can’t be the only teachers to ever leave the college?

‘All Year 7 and 8 Japanese students are signing paper petitions and we have a community petition for parents, carers and the local community on change.org with 270 signatures so far.’

Kirsten added: ‘The students feel very stongly about it and I feel as a parent that if they feel strongly about it then we need to do something to help them.’

She added that Tavistock’s MP Sir Geoffrey Cox has agreed to raise the issue at a meeting with the principal.

Tavistock College recently announced it was removing Japanese from the curriculum due to ‘unavoidable staffing changes’.

Parents have learned that two out of three of the Japanese teachers at the college are leaving to move to Japan to teach English there.

The Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust, which runs the school, said pupils in Years 9 and 10 were still able to complete their Japanese GCSE as normal but is wanted to move to ‘a renewed focus’ on Spanish and French.