A school could be named the best in the country just a year before it goes out of existence.

Fishersgate First School has been named in a shortlist of three for the only annual prize the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) issues to individual schools, the sustainable schools award.

Fishersgate headteacher Andrew Morris said: "We were nominated because of the amount of community work we do teaching courses for parents and residents outside of school hours. The judges who came to visit were very impressed, they were actually moved to tears by some of the stories they were told by people who use the courses."

At the end of the 2007/8 academic year Fishersgate, in Gardner Road, Portslade, will become part of a new primary school along with Manor Hall First and Middle schools in Manor Hall Road, Southwick.

West Sussex County Council originally planned to shut down the Fishersgate site and have the whole school based in Manor Hall Road but a passionate campaign by parents convinced a schools adjudicator to keep the Gardner Road buildings as part of the plan.