Politicians, parents and the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, have all voiced their determination to keep the Notre Dame girls' school in Churchtown, Co Dublin, open despite plans by its owners to sell the site.
Dr Woods, after meeting local representatives, has set up a working party to study options for keeping it open.
The Our Lady of the Mission Order, which owns the school and the 10-acre site surrounding it, has told parents it must close within the next three years. The working group will hold its first meeting this week.
If the order sells the site, which is close to the proposed Luas line, it can expect to take a multimillion-pound profit.
The chairman of the board of trustees for the order, Mr Martin Molunphy, told The Irish Times the nuns were still intent on selling the school but were prepared to listen to alternative proposals, particularly those from the Department of Education.
The closure announcement was made last week and it has greatly angered parents at the school, who claim they were not consulted or given advance warning.
At a public meeting this week, attended by up to 600 people, members of the order were strongly criticised by parents, among them the entertainer "Twink", Adele King, who has two daughters in the school.
In a statement last night, the Minister, Dr Woods said: "I am determined that Notre Dame des Missions remains open as a school. It is a fine educational institution and thousands of women have been educated there in a tradition which extends back for many years."
Local TD and Minister of State, Mr Tom Kitt (FF), also said he was determined the school would remain open and he welcomed the intervention of the Minister and the setting up of the working party. Another Fianna Fβil TD involved is the Government Chief Whip, Mr SΘamus Brennan, whose children have attended the school in the past.
The fee-paying school is popular in the south Dublin area. Its fees (€1,000 a year) are relatively modest compared to other fee-paying schools. There are about 470 pupils split between the primary and secondary school.
It is understood the working party will study several options for keeping the school open. One of these is for a lay board of trustees to take over, leasing the school and grounds from the order. The lease would be paid by either the parents or the Department of Education.
The other option would be for the Department of Education to buy the school and some part of the site. But according to sources the order is anxious to get a reasonable price for the land and will expect the Department to at least pay something close to the market rate.
The order has very few other links with the Republic and it has been scaling down its involvement in schools in Britain and elsewhere.
There are a large number of schools in the locality, some of them fee paying and others community schools.
One of the nearest fee-paying schools is Loreto Beaufort in Rathfarnham, while there is a nearby community school in Ballinteer and another one in the Ballally area of Dundrum.
In recent years there have been several controversial school closures. In a nearby suburb to Churchtown, Milltown, the well-known girls school St Anne's was closed a few years ago.