PENDLE'S largest high school is set to be released from special measures imposed by the Government - six months ahead of the deadline staff were given to turn it around.

Mansfield High, Brierfield, has emerged from the black cloud of controversy hanging over it for the past two years, parents were told last night during its annual prize presentation ceremony.

Governors will be handed back control of Mansfield's finances in January and special measures will be lifted two months later provided the school passes a stringent Ofsted inspection.

It follows a monitoring visit by HMI school inspectors which found 55 per cent of lessons were good or very good and 93 per cent satisfactory or better.

Peter Dixon, associate head at Mansfield High, Brierfield, told parents at the prize presentation evening: "The progress which has been made in the past 18 months is spectacular."

He added: "We must remember, however, that removal of special measures brings us only to the baseline. If we are to re-establish a school of which we can be justly proud we must learn the lessons of the last two years and apply them with integrity and consistency."

Lancashire Education Authority took control of the school's finances in July1998 and Mansfield was put under special measures the following month after an inspection ordered by the then Schools Minister Stephen Byers. Mansfield was given two years to improve or face closure. It followed the departure of head Ernie Pickup and business manager Peter Cowell-Smith in early 1997 after a police investigation into allegations of financial irregularities and the loss of prestigious technology college status.

Mr Pickup, Mr Cowell-Smith and Blackburn businessman George Brewin are currently on bail facing charges of conspiracy to defraud the Department for Education.

Mr Dixon said the fact that students gaining five or more GCSE grades A*-C achieved a pass rate of 46 per cent, seven per cent higher than ever before, during the most traumatic period in its 60-year history was a major boost to staff and pupils alike.

He added: "If you go through the traumatic experience of special measures and do not learn anything from it then it has been a double blow. HMI have strongly hinted that it will emerge from special measures as a good school. These will only occur if we learn the lessons of the past two years."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.