A TROUBLED Burnley school is being run by an acting headteacher from Preston while governors decide how to recruit a successor.

Hameldon Community College has been without a permanent headteacher since Gill Broom left at the end of the summer term.

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The Coal Clough Lane school, which is under the control of Lancashire County Council, is now being led by Gill Jackson who is the headteacher at Archbishop Temple School in Preston.

Hameldon was formed from a merger of Ivy Bank and Habergham High School in 2006 and has a chequered history, having been rated ‘inadequate’ in 2007 and 2013 by Ofsted.

Ofsted inspectors said it still ‘requires improvement’ following an inspection last summer.

It has also struggled in recent years to attract enough students.

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said: “We are providing leadership support including through sending in an acting headteacher from an outside school.

“This is being done to give the governors enough time to review the situation and discuss how to recruit a new headteacher who can address the challenges the school faces.

“They are working out what they will be looking for in a candidate.

“This is the arrangement in place for this term and then the situation will be reviewed after that.

“We will continue to support the school.”

As revealed earlier this year, declining student numbers continue to be an issue with only 40 parents applying to send their children there as their first choice for this new academic year, compared with 60 last year.

The school has spaces for 150 pupils in each year, but there were 331 students in all year groups attending last year.

Ms Broom said in the summer that she had ‘decided to pursue new interests in life’ after 31 years in education, 20 of which were in Burnley.

Cllr Gordon Birtwhistle, who represents the area on Burnley Council, said: “I keep on hearing all sorts of rumours about the future of the school.

“I hope that a new headteacher is recruited as soon as possible and that they restore the school to the size it was literally build for which was 950 students.”

“I also hope that they bring back success to the school.”