CONTROVERSIAL Colne Valley headteacher Carol Gormley is on “gardening leave.”

Ms Gormley has not been seen around Colne Valley Specialist Arts College for the past few days.

A source close to Ms Gormley told the Examiner that she had informed him she was on “gardening leave”.

Kirklees Cabinet member for children’s services, Clr Peter O’Neill, confirmed he believed this was the case, although could not say the exact date it had begun.

According to the Oxford Dictionaries, gardening leave is “an employee’s suspension from work on full pay for the duration of a notice period, typically to prevent them from having any further influence on the organisation or from accessing confidential information.”

A receptionist at the 1,400-pupil Linthwaite school yesterday confirmed that Ms Gormley would not be attending last night’s parents’ evening.

One pupil who was told to report to her office said that she was absent, and that the office contained packing boxes.

Ms Gormley’s long-term future at Colne Valley Specialist Arts College, Huddersfield’s biggest school, has been the subject of much speculation since the damning Ofsted report published on February 5.

This put the secondary school into ‘special measures’, meaning the Government no longer had confidence in the leadership and outside help was required to turn things around.

Since then, Kirklees Council’s education experts have been working alongside teachers at the school.

One parent, who has been involved with the school for many years but who did not wish to be named, welcomed the news of Ms Gormley’s departure.

She said: “She needs to go. My feeling is that the school culture is very heavily influenced by its headteacher and she has set up a culture which does not take advice and which is not positive for pupils.

“A new headteacher is essential to turn things around.”

She added that last week some teachers had emailed parents asking them to take part in a Survey Monkey online questionnaire. It spoke about a vision for the future of the school and asked them three questions about what values and skills they wanted their children to have.

Ms Gormley has been a controversial figure since taking over as headteacher in April 2008.

She first made headlines just days after her appointment – following an acting headship at Bradfield School, Sheffield – by excluding 23 pupils in what she described as a “purge” to improve pupil behaviour.

She excluded pupils for swearing at staff or refusing to carry out instructions.

Despite her claims that the actions were “fair and consistent,” the new regime did not meet with universal approval.

While her no-nonsense approach was backed by staff, governors and some parents, other parents felt that the exclusions were excessive.

In 2009 she introduced a new House and vertical tutoring system, dividing pupils into smaller community groups to engender a sense of belonging to the school.

That year the school achieved record GCSE results, a feat it has just repeated in the latest GCSE results tables, published in January.

In April 2012, she made national headlines and caused a local outcry in a move dubbed ‘Rulergate’ when several hundred pupils were given hour-long detentions for forgetting rubbers, pens and pencil sharpeners.

It is believed that a new acting head has just been appointed and that this person will be holding meetings with local educationalists in the near future.

Kirklees Council was unable to comment on the issue.