A HEADTEACHER who was suspended from his school three months ago has resigned.Russell Moon was suspended from Philip Morant School, Colchester, in February following a number of allegations which have never been made public.

A HEADTEACHER who was suspended from his school three months ago has resigned.

Russell Moon was suspended from Philip Morant School, Colchester, in February following a number of allegations which have never been made public.

Yesterday the governors of the school accepted Mr Moon's resignation as headteacher. A statement released by the school said: "After six years he has decided it is time to move on."

The news follows a period in which the relationship between Mr Moon, who was on secondment from September to work on a global schools IT project, and the governing body broke down.

Using the Freedom of Information Act, the EADT has revealed how at Mr Moon's last meeting with the full governing body before he went on secondment, he was censured by governors for failing to apologise after expressing no confidence in the finance committee previously.

The row started at a meeting of the finance committee last May, when Mr Moon told members he had no confidence in a vote they took rejecting his proposal for a scheme to provide laptop computers for sixht-formers and threatened to resign from the governing body.

The committee subsequently passed the scheme at a later meeting.

Last July, the full governing body met and the row boiled over again. Finance committee members said Mr Moon's statement of lack of confidence had been "embarrassing and hurtful", while Mr Moon said he could not be headteacher in a school where the governing body behaved in such a way.

A motion was proposed and passed saying: "Governors regret the failure of the headteacher to apologise for expression of lack of confidence in the finance committee following the rejection of his proposals to introduce laptops for Year 12."

In February the chairman of governors, Geoff Davison, suspended the headteacher, and hand delivered a letter informing him of his action to Mr Moon's home.

Yesterday Mr Davison, would not explain why the headteacher was suspended, nor would he confirm or deny whether Mr Moon was offered any incentive to resign.

Meanwhile, Mr Moon, 47, said: "I have worked with the most wonderful students at Philip Morant. It has been a pleasure to see them grow and develop into young people of whom we can be very proud.

"I have also been fortunate in having a really superb staff team – teachers and support staff. They are highly professional and dedicate themselves to providing each student with the highest quality education and care.

"Going beyond the call of duty is the norm for them and I am pleased with the pioneering work we did to improve everyone's work-life balance, make use of information technology, and raise standards."

Mr Moon added: "I have really enjoyed my time working on the broader canvas and have decided to continue initiatives in this area."

Mr Moon would not make any further comment.

Sue Cowans, who was made acting headteacher at the school last September, will continue in this role.