A NEW board of governors has been installed at Pleckgate High School.

Just two members of the old board remain in post, former chairman Aziz Hazari and retired former Chief Superintendent Bob Eastwood.

A new chairman of the body to govern the school has been named as John Banks, headteacher of Wigan school Westleigh High.

The new interim executive board was approved after the council’s application to the Department for Education to replace the existing governors was approved.

It comes as head teacher Cherry Ridgway announced she would be taking personal leave shortly after the school was put in special measures by Ofsted.

Blackburn with Darwen Council said the new board consisted of ‘senior and highly experienced people from different walks of life’.

The new governing body will be tasked with delivering improvements after Ofsted placed the school in special measures.

The council had already applied for permission to establish an interim executive board before Ofsted published its findings earlier this month.

The first meeting of the new group is expected to take place next week.

Blackburn with Darwen Council’s executive member for education, Dave Harling, said: “We would like to thank the outgoing governing body for all their work and look forward to working with the new board to build on progress that has already been made.

“We are delighted to have such a strong group of leaders in place and feel their skills and experience will be invaluable in addressing issues highlighted by Ofsted, improving teaching and behaviour, and setting Pleckgate on the path to success.”

The new chairman of governors, John Banks said: “This has been an extremely challenging period for the school and our first priority will be to support students, teachers and parents so that we can start to move forward.

“The new governing body will meet for the first time next week to start to plan how we will address the areas for improvement that have been identified by Ofsted.”

In addition to Mr Banks, the new governors are Ian Kendrick , accountant John Eddleston who has been a school governor since 2012 and Michelle Foster, an experienced governor who is also a National Leader of Governance.