Education bosses have called for a halt to a controversial staffing restructure at a city junior school.
The city council has written to trade unions to confirm it has called for proposals to axe eight teaching assistants at Uplands Junior School, in Highfields, to be put on hold while an independent investigation is carried out into concerns raised by staff and unions leaders.
It has also asked governors to suspend headteacher Tim Luckcock while the investigation is carried out.
The council's director of learning services, Margaret Libreri, has written to school governors and unions to confirm the council's actions, and to invite them to a meeting to discuss the appointment of an independent investigator.
Margaret Libreri said: "Governors are responsible for staffing matters within their school, and we have been advising Uplands' governors for some weeks on the course of action needed.
"They have recently agreed that an investigation should be carried out, but we need to ensure that all parties have full confidence in the arrangements.
"For this reason we are seeking an urgent meeting with governors and unions to agree the appointment of an independent investigator, with a view to making that appointment by the beginning of next week.
"We have also repeated the call we made to governors some weeks ago, to suspend the headteacher – as a neutral act – while the investigation is carried out."
Councillor Vi Dempster, assistant city mayor for schools, said: "This situation has already gone on for too long and we are certainly not prepared to let it continue indefinitely.
"As a council we have considerable experience and expertise in successfully addressing such situations, and I'm surprised that the governors have not as yet taken the very clear advice offered to ensure a speedy resolution."
More than a dozen teachers from the NUT picketed for two hours outside the city school earlier this week, forcing the school to shut for the day.
They say plans to axe teaching assistants at the end of the summer term will add to their workload and lead to lower standards.
Teaching and support staff at the school launched a formal grievance against Mr Luckcock and chair of governors Abid Matak in March.
It called on education bosses at the city council to request their resignation following a number of issues, including the redundancies.
Mr Matak said: "It would be a premature decision to suspend any member of staff before the independent investigation has been allowed to take place. Any decision to suspend must be made after careful consideration of the facts and not as a result of pressure being placed upon the governors who must at all times act in the best interests of the school."
Mr Luckcock were unavailable for comment.
