GOVERNORS at Alexander Patterson School expressed "surprise and concern" after being confronted with a healthy school budget, confounding expectations the school would sink into the red.

The amount of cash available for 2004/05 would make running the curriculum "less problematic", parents were told in a letter from the chairman of governors, Mrs Gil Woolley.

She said: "The expectation was that there would be a considerable budgetary shortfall during the next financial year and that the LEA had recommended redundancies and closure, with the financial situation as a contributory factor."

She added that "the financial situation is in fact not an issue", thanks to Government grants, staff rationalisation and a careful eye being kept on the school's purse strings.

Although the budget could keep enough staff on to teach the children, the decline in pupil numbers would "deem the school potentially unviable anyway".

Headteacher, Marilyn Calvert, told the Shuttle/Times & News: "When I received it I was somewhat horrified to discover that some of the shortfall we thought we were going to have was no longer the case."

She added: "Because it could sustain the staffing, the curriculum issues that the LEA (had argued) would not have been an issue. But we still would not have had the children. I am sure the LEA would have still deemed us not to be viable, even if they knew we had the money."