AN EDUCATION chief today offered an olive branch to teachers at a doomed school by revealing he expects many of them to keep their jobs.

But Coun Dave Hollings said he feared some redundancies would be inevitable at Blackburn's Queen's Park Technology College.

Blackburn with Darwen Council's ruling executive board last night approved the closure of the school and its replacement with a new school next April.

Queen's Park has been one of the borough's most problematic schools in recent years. After slipping into 'special measures' following a government inspection earlier this year, it then returned one of the worst sets of GCSE results in the country.

Although the new school would be based in the same buildings, and have the same pupils, Coun Hollings insisted it would be a brand new start for pupils.

Unions have expressed disgust at the decision to make teachers re-apply for their old jobs. But Coun Hollings said: "I would like to dispel this myth that the teachers are being made scapegoats. There are many factors why the school has not done as well as it has, and I know there are many good teachers there.

"The school will have a new ethos and a new curriculum which better suits the needs of the pupils there.

"I hope and expect many of teachers will be around when the new school opens."

Council leader Kate Hollern said: "This is a brave decision but one which I feel is for the best."

Conservative leader Colin Rigby said: "I fear that we are opening a can of worms by trying to make teachers redundant when, effectively, there is still a demand for the work which they do."

And Lib Dem leader Paul Browne said: "I'm not sure how you can call it a new school when it's going to be in the same building, with the same pupils and with some of the same teachers."