AN inquiry into the running of a crisis-hit Halesowen primary school where teachers were on the verge of taking industrial action is still going on four months after it was launched.

Dudley Council education chiefs appointed two independent investigators following union claims of mis-management by the headteacher and governors at Olive Hill Primary School last November.

A council spokeswoman confirmed the investigation was still being carried out, but could not comment on why it was taking so long or when it was likely to be concluded.

She stressed that the inquiry was “looking at the overall leadership” of the school and not at individual members of staff.

The National Union of Teachers took up a raft of issues with education officers at the council which had been flagged up by disgruntled staff and a ballot for industrial action was deferred.

Following this, a leadership consultant was sent in by the local authority to support the school, which last month received a “satisfactory” grade after its Ofsted inspection.

In the report, HMI inspector Roy Bowers states the consultant was brought in because of “the instability in leadership over the past year.”

He highlights that during that period, several members of staff, including an assistant headteacher with responsibility for Early Years, left the school.

Two teachers, including the second assistant headteacher, were on long-term absence at the time of the inspection, the school had appointed a local authority consultant to lead and manage the Early Years and a temporary teacher was covering the absence of the second assistant headteacher.

But he said: “After a period of instability owing to staff and leadership changes which slowed the rate of school improvement, the headteacher has re-established a strong sense of common purpose, with raising pupils’ achievement at its core.”

Mr Bowers added that a “small minority” of parents felt the school, led by headteacher Tess Jordan, did not deal effectively with unacceptable behaviour and was not well led or managed, although no bad behaviour was observed during the inspection.

He called upon the school to improve communications with all groups of parents, raise pupils’ achievements, improve the quality of teaching and learning and ensure all leaders strengthen their skills of monitoring, evaluating and improving the work of the school.

The school was judged “good” by Ofsted in 2004 under the previous head and “satisfactory” in 2008 after Mrs Jordan had taken over at the helm.