GOVERNORS at a high school placed in 'special measures' have received a public apology.

It comes after education bosses left them in the dark about plans to improve the school's performance.

Blackburn with Darwen Council's executive member for education, Coun Dave Hollings, issued the apology after being challenged by one of Moorland High's governors, Roy Davies, over what was happening there.

The school was placed in special measures by Ofsted inspectors in February and given two years to turn itself around. Standards, behaviour, attitudes, leadership and management were all found to be unsatisfactory by inspectors.

And a report said governors and teachers had suffered a severe staffing difficulty which had left the senior management team "beleaguered and battered".

The council, also the borough's education authority, took over financial control of the school and the board of governors was suspended and replaced by an 'interim executive board.' But Mr Davies, elected to the council in June's local elections, claimed promises that the governors would be kept informed of what was going on at the school had not been kept.

He said: "We have received just one letter which said what was going on, and that was several months ago.

"I am very pleased that things appear to be improving there, but as a governor, I would like to be kept informed of what is going on as has been promised."

A report presented to Blackburn with Darwen's full council on Thursday said that the interim executive board began operating in June, and the first monitoring visit took place in July.

The report stated that the school appeared to be making progress and that they expected the school to come out of special measures in September 2005.

Coun Hollings said: "We are working closely with the school to turn things around because we don't want to be letting any of pupils down.

"I would like to apologise to any governors who feel let down or uninformed about what is going on and am happy to promise that this will change."