A NURSERY school is to close next year after officials voted to go ahead with a reorganisation of early years education.

Despite an impassioned appeal from staff, a meeting of Durham County Council's school organisation committee yesterday voted to press ahead with the closure of Dean Road Nursery School, in Ferryhill.

The 30-year-old school, currently home to 74 children, will close in July 2006 and a new nursery will open half-a-mile away at Dean Bank Primary School.

The primary school is opposite the town's existing SureStart centre and the council wants to establish County Durham's first integrated children's centre at the site.

The move is also expected to guarantee the long-term future of the primary school, which has a capacity of 322 pupils, but currently has only 216 children on the roll, with numbers expected to fall further over the next few years.

A report compiled last year by education watchdog Ofsted described the nursery as having "serious weaknesses", but staff insisted that there had been a dramatic improvement over the past 12 months and that their performance was now "outstanding".

Headteacher Catherine Swan said that the existing arrangements ensured the children received specialist attention from highly-trained staff.

She told the committee: "The children of Ferryhill will get a significantly better education in this nursery school rather than in a nursery class at a primary school.

"It is absolutely clear that closing Dean Road Nursery School is educationally indefensible."

Pauline Trudell, a London-based expert on early years education, said that any children's centre for the village should be based around the existing nursery school.

However, the committee agreed with education authority officials and Chris Young, headteacher of the primary school, who argued that opening the new nursery unit would improve the all-round education for children in the area and make it easier for children to move from nursery to primary education.

After the meeting, Mrs Swan said she was disappointed with the decision.

Mr Young said: "I have every sympathy with my colleagues from Dean Road, but we think it will be better for the long-term future for the children of the area if the nursery is relocated to our site."