PARENTS have been invited to step forward to help run Richmond School as the process to re-establish a permanent board of governors begins.

A shadow body is to be formed by April to work with the current interim executive board (IEB) for about a year.

A permanent board of governors will then be set up, parents were told at a meeting at the school on Thursday evening.

The announcement comes almost a year after the previous board of governors resigned en-mass when they received a warning letter from education chiefs at North Yorkshire County Council.

It later emerged that the letter was issued after the relationship between governors and senior teachers broke down in the months before the resignations.

The IEB was formed as a temporary measure to run the school and address any concerns.

Colonel Stephen Padgett, chair of the IEB, said he believed the board had made significant progress, although there was still work to be done.

"The IEB has engaged determinedly and robustly with its responsibilities at Richmond School. The school needed a strong governing body which would work in partnership with the school’s leadership and provide the necessary critical challenge and support to that leadership team.

“The job of the IEB was to get the school back on track in areas that had become problematic and it has done that effectively."

Col Padgett told parents the board had spoken to as many people as possible to understand any issues.

He said the board had made public the council warning letter and the results of a stress survey, which revealed that 36 members of staff felt bullied or harassed by someone in authority.

As well as scrutinising the school's finances, Col Padgett said the board had made a number of changes to the running of the school.

These included ensuring governors were involved in appointing all staff and conducting exit interviews, while a consequence system was introduced to tackle low-level disruption.

The meeting heard that Department for Education regulations meant that the shadow body of ten people had to be appointed by the council, in discussion with the IEB and school, rather than elections taking place.

Concerns were raised that only two parents would be selected to sit on the shadow body, alongside staff, local authority and co-opted governors.

The meeting was told that the full governing body would be appointed in the normal way with elections if necessary.

Shadow governors would not necessarily become full governors and former Richmond School governors could still apply, parents were told.

County councillor Arthur Barker, North Yorkshire’s executive member for schools, said he hoped there would be wide interest among parents wanting to become shadow governors.