ANGRY staff at a crisis-hit school where teachers yesterday went on strike in a dispute over unruly pupils are calling for the headteacher to quit.

Around 69 teachers manned a picket line outside Darwen Vale High School, claiming a lack of support from top management in dealing with troublemakers.

Last night it emerged seven staff were currently suspended from the roll of 80 teachers.

Unions bosses said that was an ‘extraordinary number’ for a single school.

Headteacher Hilary Torpey was ‘too soft on pupils and too hard on staff’, they said.

And they warned there could be further strikes, despite demands by parents that the dispute is resolved as quickly as possible.

Mrs Torpey was not put up for interview on the matter, despite a national press and TV pack sent to cover the strike.

However, the borough council’s director of education said ‘there were no serious concerns’ about pupil behaviour.

The NUT and the NASUWT unions said the action was ‘an absolute last resort’ at the Holden Fold-based school.

Unions said some of the suspensions were for legitimate reasons, but they believe a number of teachers have suffered ‘malicious and false’ allegations from a minority of pupils.

However sources told the Lancashire Telegraph that a counter view was that a small number of teachers heavily involved in union activities were to blame.

Darwen Vale was rated good by Ofsted last year for pupil behaviour. Mrs Torpey was appointed headteacher in September.

NASUWT national executive John Girdley criticised Mrs Torpey: “She is too soft on pupils and too hard on staff and has reduced staff to tears.

“There have been seven members of staff suspended at the school which is an extraordinary number.

“I am quite convinced the staff can manage the behaviour of students but the headteacher is backing pupils not the staff.

“As far as my members are concerned they are at their wits’ end and they have said the only solution for this is that the headteacher has got to go.”

National executive NUT and Blackburn with Darwen representative Simon Jones described Mrs Torpey as ‘draconian with staff and inconsistent with pupils’.

“This is the last resort because of management’s failure to support them in dealing with unacceptable behaviour,” he said.

“We are not demonising the children. There are other schools that have pupils with challenging behaviour and teachers here don’t feel like they are supported by management.

“This has changed dramatically from last year’s Ofsted.

“No more strikes are planned but we have balloted for discontinuous strike action so we can strike whenever and will if the situation doesn’t change.”

Harry Devonport, director of education at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said they were committed to addressing the concerns of staff.

He said: “My concern is for the wellbeing and education of the children. It is sad that it has got to this point.

“We have ongoing meetings with staff about the issues in order to resolve and address their concerns.

"Darwen Vale High School is a good school and we have no serious concerns about the behaviour.”

Mrs Torpey, 52, joined Darwen Vale from Glenburn Sports College in Skelmersdale.

On her appointment she said she wanted to turn the school from ‘good to great’.

The mother of two grown-up children, who is married to a retired teacher, had been a head for three years and has more than 20 years’ experience as a teacher, mainly in the Merseyside area. She lives in Ormskirk.

Click on the links below for our video, photo gallery and previous stories on the Darwen Vale strike.