A REPORT published yesterday cast grave doubts over the future of Haydon Bridge High School.

The crisis-torn school is £1m in the red, and currently racking up losses at a rate of more than £600,000 a year, according to a detailed document compiled by Northumberland County Council’s interim director of children’s services Andrew Johnson.

Even after proposed staffing restructures, annual losses would still be expected to be in the region of £500,000 a year.

With an increasing number of parents sending children in its catchment area to schools in Hexham and Brampton, Haydon Bridge has only 361 pupils on its register, compared to a capacity of 900. And only 37 children have signed up to start the school next September.

Last week, the Bright Tribe academy trust pulled out of a takeover deal.

And it has emerged that Regional Schools Commissioner Janet Renou has warned that Education Secretary Justine Greening has powers to order the county council to cease maintaining the school, which has been in special measures for three years.

Hexham’s Queen Elizabeth High School has confirmed it was unwilling to take over responsibility for Haydon Bridge, because of financial and education risks involved. But it has indicated its willingness to take on its pupils if new school premises were built to increase capacity at Hexham.

Mr Johnson’s bleak assessment of the future for Haydon Bridge was included in a wide-ranging report on the future of schools across west Northumberland, which will be consered by the council’s cabinet on December 19.

The cabinet is being recommended to undertake a consultation process next year, covering all schools and academies in the Hexham and Haydon Bridge catchment areas, with a view to wholesale reforms being implemented by September 2019.

Mr Johnson said the area’s schools had a capacity for almost 7,000 children, but fewer than 5,000 were registered.

In addition, he warned that many of the smaller schools were forecast to have precarious financial positions by 2020.

He said the council would like to establish a Northumberland-wide multi-academy trust of its own.

“The council has a duty to support schools to improve standards, support continuity of education, and ensure sufficiency of school places with Northumberland and smooth transition between schools,” he said.

“This can only be achieved if schools and academies work together in partnership.”