EDUCATION bosses, teachers and parents are reeling after a second failing school was taken into special measures.

Governors and staff at Queen's Park Technology College in Shadsworth, Blackburn, have been told the school has two years to make the grade after a damning report by the Office for Standards in Education.

The move comes just two weeks after special measures were introduced at Darwen's Moorland High School, where the board of governors have also been suspended.

Today leading opposition councillors claimed pleas for help from governors and school staff had been ignored by Blackburn with Darwen Council's education department.

Queen's Park, whose school motto is "to be the best", is the third school in Lancashire and one of 30 nationally, to be put under special measures following an inspection last autumn. Darwen Moorland head, Richard Bridges, warned last week that more schools would follow after Ofsted tightened its inspection criteria in September.

Coun Mahfooz Hussain, executive member for education, confirmed Queen's Park and the Local Education Authority had been asked to write a detailed action plan on how the school will be turned around.

Government inspectors will then return to the school in six months time, and again each term, until the two years is up.

Darwen Moorland and Queen's Park have both been told they are "unsatisfactory" despite special support from the LEA over the last four years through an Education Action Zone -- formed to channel Government funding into schools to raise standards and attainment.

Several initiatives from the EAZ, which have continued under the umbrella of Excellence In Cities, have operated from Queen's Park such as learning mentors.

A £300,000 team of consultants was also sent into both schools last February to raise standards.

Yet Queen's Park became the worst performer in East Lancashire in 2003 at GCSE level -- with only 16 per cent of pupils achieving Grades A*-C. In 2000 the figure was lower still at 15 per cent, rising in 2001 to 19, and then falling again to 18 in 2002. Moorhead High School in Hyndburn, Darwen Vale and Towneley High in Burnley also trailed at the bottom of the 2003 league.

Blackburn with Darwen LEA won Beacon Status in 1999 for its track record in turning schools around. It was named a centre of excellence, giving help advice to other authorities, with a government target of "tackling school failure".

Council leader Sir Bill Taylor said: "When we became a unitary authority there were a dozen or more schools under special measures, but this is still a really serious issue and we are letting kids down. The worst thing we can do is not face up to it, the best thing we can do is roll up our sleeves and tackle it."

Hundreds of Year 11 pupils taking their GCSEs this summer, will have suffered from poor standards, according to conservative Coun Michael Law-Riding.

He said: "Education bosses have abandoned secondary education for too long, concentrating mainly on lower schools."

Paul Browne, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said: "I find it very confusing that this authority has won beacon status but its schools are now under scrutiny.

"I spoke to one of the suspended governors at Moorland and he told me that he notified the council education authority of the problems 12 months ago and nothing was done about it."

Colin Rigby, Conservative group leader, accused the council of ignoring pupils' needs to meet government targets.

Queens Park headteacher Ian Bott took over from Vicki Davenport in September 2003. He described the pupils as having "untapped potential" and vowed to concentrate on raising achievement.

Ian Kendrick, deputy director of education, said: "Queen's Park faces some extremely challenging circumstances and we have been working intensively with them to address issues."

"The new headteacher has only been in post for just over a term and it is very disappointing that during the short time the inspectors were in the school they did not identify the shoots of recovery that we believe exist."