PARENTS have welcomed a move by a school governing body to discuss their concerns over education standards and frequent teacher turnover.

There has been unrest simmering for months among parents of children at Bishop's Waltham Infant School, because of a high turnover of staff.

This has boiled over into criticism of the head teacher's role in staffing levels, criticism of the chairman of governors and threats to remove children as a last resort.

Now there are moves to unseat the governing body chairman Diana Underwood after parent power pressurised her colleagues.

Parents have been unhappy this year at the alleged harm done to their pupils' education by not always having the same teacher for the long term.

They say head teacher Anne Hendrie's influence is to blame for the lack of continuity in teachers and have complained repeatedly.

But parents became frustrated at the lack of influence they had when the head teacher and the governors appeared not to address their concerns.

Finally, concerned parents gathered to stand outside the school, while a closed governing body meeting was taking place inside two weeks ago, to lobby governors as they arrived.

This resulted in the parents being invited by a few governors to write to each governor individually, expressing their concerns, thus ensuring every member was aware of problems.

A full governing body meeting, next Thursday, will address these concerns, including "inadequate" staffing levels and "lack of communication" between parents, school management and governors. A meeting between parents and governors is also promised to follow in January.

Liz Rostand, whose son Edmund, aged five, attends the school, said: "It's a good first move that the governors and the head teacher are listening to the parents. But they have a long way to go to regain the confidence and trust of the parents.

"My son is very well taught, but some children's education is being disrupted by too many new teachers. There is talk that the chairman of the governors might be voted out if change doesn't happen quickly and that would be welcomed by many parents.''

Mrs Underwood acknowledged the high turn over of staff, but denied education was suffering. "I'm sure the problems the parents are complaining about have more or less been sorted out.''

Mrs Hendrie said recruitment to replace four teachers who left last year was successful. Other teachers had a variety of reasons for being temporarily off work.