EDUCATION bosses have called in a new head teacher to take control at a crisis-hit East Lancashire high school.

They have announced that Mansfield High, Brierfield, will be put "under new management" after the summer holidays as part of a re-shuffle of top teachers at the school, which has lost the services of three senior staff and is at the centre of a police financial investigation.

The changes will come in at the beginning of September and last until the end of the year, with the possibility of the arrangements continuing into 1999 "depending on how the circumstances develop or change", said the education authority.

Glynne Ward, currently head of Ribblesdale High, Clitheroe, will take over from Ian Blackey as acting head.

Mr Blackey, who has run the troubled school since head Ernie Pickup was asked to stay away following the launch of a financial investigation in December, will return to his post as deputy head.

Newcomer Jackie Turner will be seconded as an acting deputy head from Morecambe High School from September 1, taking over from Val Malcolm who was previously seconded from Hollins High, Accrington. Deputy head Alan Duckworth has still not returned to the school after being suspended at the beginning of the year as a result of a separate police inquiry.

The inquiry ended with the police taking no action but Mr Duckworth still faces an internal disciplinary process.

News of the shake-up comes a week after teachers at the 1,200-pupil school passed a vote of no confidence in its governors following the announcement that Mansfield is to lose its prestigious technology college status.

County education chiefs also announced they would take direct control away from the governorning body next month.

A statement by Lancashire County Council said Miss Ward was an experienced head teacher who had led Ribblesdale High successfully through two consecutive Ofsted inspections.

The council declined to add anything to its statement.

Mansfield will lose its coveted technology college status from next month and the county council will take over control of its finances from the governors from the end of August.

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