FURIOUS parents are fighting to save a special school which is set to close within a year.

Staff at Wolverley's Alexander Patterson School, which caters for youngsters with moderate learning difficulties, have been told their jobs are on the line.

Falling pupil numbers mean the school is only expected to be viable until August 2004 - sparking a desperate battle to save it from the chop, backed by headteacher Marilyn Calvert.

The number of pupils has plummeted from 90 four years ago to 51 this year, with the decline predicted to continue.

Kate Lane, whose daughter used to attend the school, hit out at the crisis and urged worried parents to contact her to put together a resistance to the threatened closure.

Sophie, now 10, entered the school through the pre-school Next Steps assessment unit as "a very angry, confused little soul with no speech".

"Through the staff's endless patience, care, devotion and sheer hard work, she progressed through the school and has now entered a mainstream middle school as a happy, bubbly chatterbox whose academic abilities and eagerness to learn are wonderful," said Mrs Lane.

However, the Local Education Authority denied her claim that the school is being "quietly and gradually closed under the noses of parents".

Mrs Lane said: "This September the intake of children at the school was nil and this is not all due to parental choice.

"Children are simply not being referred to the school - indeed many parents, whose children could hugely benefit from coming to a school of this standard - are sometimes not even told of its existence."

Worcestershire County Council's head of services to schools Ruth Chiva said: "We're in total agreement with the school that there are serious issues to consider about its future.

"Mrs Calvert contacted us recently to discuss the problem of falling roll.

"We are grateful the headteacher has brought our attention to the immediate difficulties the school faces. The number of children in special schools has been falling nationally and the Alexander Patterson roll has been declining rapidly for at least the last five years."

Glenys Shepherd said her nine-year-old granddaughter Imogen Lacy, who has severe cerebral palsy and is blind and epileptic, would need to find alternative education in Worcester or Bromsgrove as there is nowhere else suitable for her needs in the district.

She believes any closure would be a "cost-cutting" exercise.

County educational director Julien Kramer told Mrs Calvert he agreed the school would not be viable beyond next August but stressed "we cannot simply allow the school to implode".

Ms Chiva said: "Mrs Calvert is now alerting us to the fact that projected numbers for next year will make it difficult to sustain the staffing levels, and therefore delivery of the curriculum will be problematic.

"We will be in discussion with the head, governors and staff about the future of the school.

"However, as we have already said to the head to pass on to governors and staff, there has been no decision on the future of Alexander Patterson School."

Mrs Calvert told the Shuttle/Times & News governors had written to parents over their "serious misgivings" about the LEA's future plans for the school, which is following redundancy procedures for its 11 teachers and 10 teaching assistants, both full and part-time.

"I shouldn't have had to alert the LEA about the problems," she added.

Mrs Lane can be contacted on 01562 631511.