A spelling gaffe has blighted introductory letters sent to all school governors by the private company brought in to drive up Bradford's educational standards.

Paul Brett, boss of Education Bradford, took over his new job last Monday when control of the local education authority passed to private company Serco.

The following day he sent a friendly letter to the chairman of every school governing body in the district - but it mistakenly starts with the words "Dear Governer".

The spelling error was quickly spotted by governors, who are banking on the new private firm helping them to raise pupils' educational standards - including reading and writing which are well below national averages.

The Reverend Paul Flowers, minister of Great Horton Methodist Church and chairman of governors at Southmere Primary School, said: "It was a fairly civil letter, but it starts off with this wonderful faux pas.

"My first thought was 'Oh God, what a wonderful start'. It fills one with cheer for the future."

Mr Flowers said he had never favoured the idea of a private company taking over from the LEA. "But as it's now happened, we will work with it," he said.

Michael Noble, chairman of governors at Ilkley Grammar School, said: "I noticed the mistake straightaway and said to my wife 'Look at this, the first thing you read is a spelling mistake'. It obviously hadn't been proof-read terribly well."

And Jim Britton, chairman of governors at Bingley Grammar School, was quite forgiving.

"Mr Brett has obviously got off to a bad start, but this is a glass house situation," he said. "We've all done it. There have even been spelling mistakes in the Telegraph & Argus."

Serco's targets include the raising of pupil attainment levels to the national average by 2005.

A Serco spokesman said: "Clearly this was an unfortunate error which wasn't picked up before the letters went out. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.

"We have written to all stakeholders, and we have had a very positive response from them."