Sir, – I was delighted to hear of the appointment of the Interim Executive Board (IEB) at Richmond School.

The members appointed to the board will not have any problem at all holding the school management to account.

With such strong knowledgeable individuals on the IEB, the management team will very much have a critical friend, questioning, guiding and holding to account the head and his team.

Chris Lewis is one of the most respected leaders in education locally and I think we are very lucky to have his input at Richmond School.

I believe it is now time to stop the speculation and rumour surrounding the previous events and I think we should all now focus on what matters for us as parents and that is the future of our children’s education.

There is nothing to be gained by raking over past events and continuing the unsettling speculation.

Let’s now focus on what we can influence and that is the future of the school.

I believe we should all pull together and support both the new board and the management of the school. Let’s keep in the forefront of our minds the educational improvement that has been delivered at Richmond School over recent years and that, without question, it is a good school where the educational interests and welfare of the students has not been affected during this governance crisis.

A number of people have commented at the lack of a parent on the IEB. I am however not concerned about this. The IEB is a temporary measure that will allow rapid and firm governance to be established at the school by a team of experts.

Once the IEB is happy with the progress and stability within the school, it would normally support the appointment of a shadow governing body who will then be made up of the usual representative panel of local people. When this time comes, I am confident we will see strong representation from parents and others.

I believe that the sooner the IEB hold a parents’ meeting and launches a PR offensive to reinforce a belief in parents of just how good Richmond School actually is the sooner things will begin to stabilise and settle down.

FRASER BROWN Middleton Tyas, Richmond.