Parents have expressed their shock after it was confirmed that Smith?s Pre-School will close its doors to youngsters at the end of this school year.

Government yesterday announced that the 16 pupils who enrolled at the school for this September would be relocated to Devonshire and Lyceum Pre-Schools. The three staff based at Smith?s, believed to be two teachers and a principal, will be switched to primary schools ahead of the new school year.

One disappointed mum ? who gave the pre-school an ?A-plus? and said it was an ?excellent? place for youngsters to learn ? said parents received the closure news by letter this week.

?It came as a complete shock,? said Juliette Basden, who has one child at the pre-school and planned to send two more there in future.

?Now the children will have to be displaced to another parish.?

She added: ?The parents are quite upset. It has been an excellent school and was very popular.?

?I rate it A-plus. It?s a shame they could not find another building or have built a new one in the last two years.?

She said that there were concerns about moving children from a small, community environment to bigger schools further away in Hamilton and Devonshire. The Ministry of Education and Development assured parents all possible steps were taken to avoid the closure ? with the decision to shut coming after a two-year hunt for alternative class space.

Permanent Secretary Rosemary Tyrrell said the aim was to have a pre-school in every parish on the Island.

She added: ?Government was not able to provide Government-owned space in every case, hence most of these pre-schools are in rented facilities ? St. David?s, Lyceum, Smith?s, Devonshire, St. John?s, St. Paul?s and Lagoon Park.?

Ms Tyrrell said that in the case of Smith?s Pre-School ? located near John Smith?s Bay ? the landlord of the house was not willing to sign up to a long-term lease. ?The Ministry, along with the estates section of the Ministry of Work and Engineering and Housing (Works), monitor these leases regularly and hence we have collaborated during the past two years in seeking an alternate site for this pre-school,? Ms Tyrrell continued.

?Works has reviewed properties owned by Government, sought accommodation through real estate agencies and through advertising in the daily newspaper. As a result of the latter we have visited privately-owned properties to determine their suitability. Finally we have discussed with other ministries the possibility of sharing sites.

?All of these efforts have been unsuccessful.?

She confirmed that education chiefs would continue to search for an alternative pre-school site in Smith?s Parish ? and said Government expected to be able to reassign staff to a new pre-school in September 2007.

Staff and parents at Smith?s and the Bermuda Union of Teachers have all been informed of the closure, a statement from the Ministry confirmed last night.