A WORCESTER primary school threatened with closure three years ago has been held up as a shining example for Britain's most deprived schools.

A £52.2m Government push for new "extended" schools has led to an appeal for Elbury Mount Primary, which is one of the first to focus on children, parents and the wider community, to be used as a model in a national pilot study.

The Brickfields school was forced to make drastic changes after coming under fire as a result of a damning Ofsted report in 1998.

Now, five of its classrooms and an assembly hall are being converted into the Fairfield Centre, which will house:

n A neighbourhood nursery.

n An adult learning centre.

n An online centre run by Worcester College of Technology.

n A base for Sure Start, the Government scheme aimed at improving social well-being for pre-school children.

At yesterday's launch of Sure Start Worcester, Government Minister Baroness Cathy Ashton hailed extended schools as the education of the future.

She said that, by 2006, at least one school in every education authority would become an "extended school", providing a full range of community services including childcare, health and social care, lifelong learning, family learning, parenting support, study support, sports and arts and IT access.

A £52.2m budget has already been set aside to fulfil these plans.

"We are creating schools for the future which meet the challenges of life in the 21st Century," she said.

"It's important that the community recognises school as a resource, whether it's a breakfast club for children who haven't eaten or a place where pensioners can get meals at weekends. It's about value beyond the classroom."

Worcestershire's cabinet member with responsibility for education and life-long learning June Longmuir, who battled to save Elbury Mount, wants to have the Brickfields school included in the scheme.

She has sent a letter to the Minister asking her to include it in a pilot study of extended schools.

"When Elbury Mount faced closure we were concerned that the children would be moved out of the environment they knew," she said.

"We believed if the environment wasn't satisfactory, we should bring what experience we had to get adults involved in their children's learning. What we got was an extended school."

Headteacher Kay Morgan said: "It's absolutely great that Elbury Mount has been considered for this kind of scheme.

"Hopefully, it's going to lead to even greater things for us."