UNION leaders have raised concerns about the health and well-being of staff at a school which saw its entire governing body resign.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT), other teaching unions and Unison have asked North Yorkshire County Council to intervene on behalf of staff at Richmond School.

The concerns emerged as the county council revealed there had been a serious breakdown in “relationship and trust” between the school's senior leadership team and the governing body prior to the governors resigning.

Paul Busby, NUT North Yorkshire secretary, said the unions' concerns had to remain confidential at present, but said the high-turnover of staff at the school was one issue.

“The health and well-being of our NUT colleagues at Richmond School has been high on my agenda for some time.

“The local authority appears keen to address the issues that we have raised on behalf of our members.”

The Northern Echo revealed last week how the entire governing body at the school had stood down, although the reasons behind the decision remained unclear.

It later emerged that the governors had been issued with a waning notice by the county council – a measure used when the local education authority believes there is a serious breakdown in the way a school is being governed which could damage its performance.

Mr Busby said his union was concerned about the resignations of the governors, adding: “It's an extremely sad and highly unusual state of affairs.

“It's an issue that does not do the staff or student any good.”

In a statement issued on Monday, the county council also described the situation as a “sad course of events”, adding that it was “one which all would have sought to have avoided”.

The statement said: “Such a situation could not in the local authority view be allowed to persist and previous efforts to resolve relationships had been unsuccessful.

“The governing body did not share the same evaluation as reached by the local authority and as stated previously decided to resign.”

The council said it was working in partnership with the school to ensure that the day to day smooth running of the school was not disrupted.

On the issues raised by the unions, the county council said: “The county council would like to reiterate that Richmond School remains a good school with a growing core of outstanding teaching and as with any school we work with the teaching unions and school leaders to address any day to day concerns.”