A HEADTEACHER who was suspended from work after a pupil made an allegation against him has resigned, the EADT can reveal.Ian Poulter was suspended from his duties at the Alderman Blaxill School in Colchester after the alleged incident in November.

A HEADTEACHER who was suspended from work after a pupil made an allegation against him has resigned, the EADT can reveal.

Ian Poulter was suspended from his duties at the Alderman Blaxill School in Colchester after the alleged incident in November.

Details of the alleged incident have never been made public and Mr Poulter remained on full pay while an investigation was carried out by Essex County Council.

The council decided to take no action following the investigation, but the headteacher of the 550-pupil school in Paxman Avenue has now offered his resignation, which has been accepted by the school.

Jonathan Rubin, chairman of the school's board of governors, declined to reveal the details of alleged incident which led to the suspension.

He said: "Mr Poulter did offer his resignation which the governors accepted and we have written to the parents about this.

"All parties behaved in gentlemanly fashion and we are going forward with the selection process for a new headteacher in the forthcoming term."

Mr Poulter's resignation will take affect on April 30 but he will remain suspended until that time and Faith Spinlove has been filling his role as acting headteacher.

Essex County Council, which sent in a special team to investigate, said it was confident the school would bounce back.

A spokesman said: "This difficult period for the school has now been resolved and we look forward to seeing this school continue to flourish in the future.

"Essex County Council has endeavoured to support the school and its management team wherever possible during the past few months."

Mr Poulter had been headteacher at Alderman Blaxill since 2002 and previously worked at the Burnt Mill School in Harlow.