THE local education authority's decision to appeal for Government help to "resurrect" Elbury Mount has brought a solution in sight after five years of educational decline.

Problems began when the city primary, in Fairfield Close, Worcester, was placed in the "serious weaknesses" category in 1998 following a highly critical Ofsted inspectors' report.

A series of inspections over the next year revealed the school had failed to make satisfactory attempts to improve, and Worcestershire made moves to close it.

"Things were not functioning at the school and the leading group within the council said Elbury Mount should be closed," said Coun June Longmuir, cabinet member for education.

"But I was not happy with the idea that sending the pupils elsewhere would solve the problem and with the development of the Fairfield Centre it was important to keep adults and children learning together in their community."

The Brickfields school remained open and following another inspection, in 2000, the county council invested heavily in the site, spending £200,000 in total to boost its performance.

However, further visits from Her Majesty's Inspectorate showed no significant progress, with English, maths and science results in the bottom 5 per cent of national schools.

And when it was placed in special measures following a November 2002 Ofsted report, the board of governors became uncooperative and refused advice from the county council.

"The Ofsted report revealed serious weaknesses in most subjects, a lack of monitoring and evaluation of pupils' progress and a general regression in the last few years," said Marie Lawrence, a senior schools inspector for south Worcestershire.

"Previous recommendations had not been adopted by the school governors and when I passed on my professional advice they told me I had got it wrong.

"I was very unhappy with the response from the school, particularly as some of their issues, such as not having a full-time nursery teacher, were breaking the law."

Government inspectors again visited the school during the summer and found further cause for concern.

And relations between the board of governors and the LEA deteriorated further when a newly produced strategic plan to improve the school was deemed "highly unsatisfactory".