A REMOTE school with just 15 pupils on its current role breathed a sigh of relief this week following the publication of a blueprint on the future of education in County Durham.

Carole Connolly, headteacher at the isolated Forest in Teesdale School - the smallest in the county - told the D&S Times that she was relieved and delighted that it was not listed for closure.

"When I got the list, I was gingerly turning the pages, expecting the worst," she said. "But this is a recognition of what the school is; vital to such an isolated community."

The county council described the report as a key tool in a £300m plan to create "world-class schools" over the next ten-15 years, but said it should not be regarded as a hit list, even though it contained the names of schools which could close as part of the process.

Although Montalbo School in Barnard Castle is under consideration for reorganisation under the proposals, headteacher Riannon Rowe stressed there were no plans to close any schools in the town or Teesdale.

"It is impossible to comment on the practicalities of what this will mean," she added. But she felt Montalbo was a successful school and she was quite sure no-one would want to jeopardise that.

However, several schools in Wear Valley are listed for possible closure including Wearhead Primary, Stanley Crook, Peases West, Dene Valley and Eldon Lane.

In the Sedgefield area, Aycliffe Village Primary is threatened with closure by 2007.

But education director Keith Mitchell said they were schools that would probably have closed anyway over the period of the programme.

"All this document does is to look at what problems are likely to arise in our schools over the longer term and identify them earlier than might otherwise have been the case," he added.

"Even if, after the extensive consultation period that we plan, this document is agreed, you have to remember that the programme extends over ten to 15 years and possibly longer"

The report measures all 306 primary, secondary and special schools against wide-ranging criteria, including physical condition, quality of education, standards achieved, number of surplus places, appropriate accommodation and extent of use for community activities.

Coun Neil Foster, cabinet member for education, said it was not a hit list to save money.

"The imaginative approach we are taking includes the redevelopment of surplus accommodation for other purposes, including early years and child care developments, accommodation for other public services and enhanced facilities for local communities like libraries, doctors' surgeries and post offices," he added.

Schools in the D&S Times' area which are listed for possible reorganisation, which could include merging with others, also include: Sunnybrow Primary at Crook, Willington Primary, Cockton Hill Junior, Woodhouse Close Infants' and Nursery, Woodhouse Close Junior, Copeland Road, Bishop Barrington, King James Community College, Trimdon Grange Infants' and Nursery, Trimdon Village Infants', Trimdon Junior, Woodham Burn Junior, Sedgefield Primary, Elmfield Primary, Woodham Burn Infants', Horndale Infants', Stephenson Way Primary, Tudhoe Grange Technology College, Ferryhill Comprehensive, Spennymoor Comprehensive, Ramshaw Primary, Evenwood CE and Green Lane Primary, Barnard Castle.