OUTRAGED teacher Melvyn Bleakley has slammed education bosses after they gave his school a prestigious award only to take it away two weeks later.

Staff at Ash Hill Primary School in Herbert Road, High Wycombe, were delighted to receive the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) achievement award last month for a high level of improvement.

But bungling officials at the DfEE have now retracted the award after making a miscalculation in improvement scores.

Melvyn Bleakley, acting deputy headteacher at the school, said teachers were shocked to receive a letter two weeks ago telling them the award had been issued in error.

He said: "It was a pat on the back and we were very, very pleased.

"To be told that it was going to be taken back because somebody had made a mistake was immoral.

"Had the letter come a couple of days later it would have arrived on April 1 and we would have thought it was a joke.

"Our rate of improvement over three years was just one or two points off getting the award."

Mr Bleakley claimed the retraction of the award would demoralise staff because significant progress has been made at the school.

He added: "This is another example of the teaching profession being undervalued at the moment our anger is keeping us going."

Ash Hill has a high intake of children who do not have English as their first language and many pupils are on the special needs register. It was praised in a recent Ofsted report.

The school was also awarded a cash sum of £4,550 from the DfEE which it will be allowed to keep.

A spokesman from the DfEE said: "The improvement awards were based on average points scores from 1997 to 2000.

"There was an error made in the calculation of the 1997 average score.

"The Department of Education and Employment said it deeply regretted the error and moved to put it right.

"Schools that did not qualify cannot appear on the list but will benefit from the financial award."