THE two-year Government-funded project to get schools nationally out of the red by next March is making progress in Buckinghamshire.

The Free Press reported three weeks ago how secondary schools in the county had been struggling with some of the worst debts in the UK with Bucks rated fifth poorest for overdrafts in the country.

Seventy three schools, of all types, have shared more than £4.2million of the Government's Targeted Transitional Grant (TTG) extra money to help them balance the books over the last two years.

Some also shared a further £880,000 from Buckinghamshire County Council when it became clear the grant would not be enough.

But TTG, which is not available any longer, was not intended to wipe out debts at a stroke and then let overspendings build up again. It had to be coupled with three-year spending plans that would get schools out of debt by March 2007 and keep them there.

Schools were warned if they did not get back in surplus they would have to pay back the grant to the Government. On Tuesday, Joyce Morphew, one of the county council's two-person team helping schools cut overspending, told Buckinghamshire Schools Forum, a panel of elected heads and chairmen of governors, that 37 school were on target to do better than their recovery plan and six schools were within £1,000 of their target.

She said 17 of the rest were not doing as well as they had planned, but they were high priority and being given intensive support.

She said all schools should be able to get into the black by the required date.

"That is some achievement. They have all had to work really hard," she said. Teachers' union representative Colin Roberts said the picture painted might look rosy, but teachers had been made redundant as part of these recovery plans.

The Misbourne School received a total of £335,000 over two years. Head Jonathan Howard-Drake said the school would be in the black by March 2007. It had had a significant overspend and a history of accumulating debts but this had now ended, with help from the county team and firm financial management at the school.

Staff cuts had been on a voluntary basis over two years and made where there was spare capacity and without affecting the curriculum. He said he had promised parents standards would not fall and they would not.

At the schools forum, member Tim Andrew asked what would happen if schools did not get back in the black in a year's time.

"These are not businesses that can be folded up," he said. "What is actually going to happen?"

Nick Powley, head of schools' performance, said: "It would be a waste of money to give the money back to the DfES, so we shall be working with schools to ensure they are in balance."

Chairman Kieran Salter said: "It is not in anyone's interest to see a school go bankrupt."