PARENTS and the chairman of the board of governors at Chipping Norton school have hit back at Ofsted after the academy was put into special measures.

Inspectors rated the school ‘inadequate’ and said pupils were not making good enough progress by the time they reached 16.

The report of the December 15-16 inspection, which was published on Friday, also criticised the school’s work with disadvantaged pupils, saying they made “significantly less progress than others”.

It also said leaders did not have an accurate view of the school’s strengths and weaknesses and where improvements need to be made.

But a petition has been launched on the campaign website change.org calling on people to support the school and claiming the inspection report is not a fair reflection. The petition has been signed by more than 370 people since it was set up on Friday.

Board of governors chairman Greg Ledgard-Hoile, who has two daughters at the school, said: “During the inspection, Ofsted decided to ignore the input of many staff members at the school, choosing instead to focus on a particular viewpoint that had clearly been formed from the paper exercise carried out before the inspectors even arrived.

“The brutal and perfunctory nature of the inspection left almost no room for meaningful dialogue on the excellent work that is taking place to address those legitimate concerns that are included in the report.”

He had full faith in headteacher Simon Duffy and his staff and there were a number of other supportive comments from parents.

Patrick Neale, owner of Jaffe and Neale books in Chipping Norton, has two boys at the school and his eldest son is a former head boy now at university.

He said: “I am worried that even people who think the school is good will say there is no smoke without fire.

“I do not want this report to have a negative impact on the school. People need to show support and solidarity.

“We employ students from the school at the bookshop and maybe we are very lucky, but those we employ seem mature, well rounded and hard working and that points in a good direction. I do not understand how this has happened.”

The 1,034 pupil-school was rated ‘good’ following a short inspection in April and a full inspection in 2012. But the report from the most recent inspection said too many pupils with disabilities and special education needs were not attending school regularly.

Inspectors added that too little of the teaching demonstrated high enough expectations of pupils and that behaviour needed to improve.

Mr Duffy said: “This Ofsted judgement, although a shock to our whole school community, clearly identified that the pace of improvement has not been rapid enough.

“It also recognises many strengths of the school, in particular the quality of pastoral care and guidance, the very strong sixth form, the outstanding range of extra-curricular activities and some outstanding teaching. We agree, however, that the progress of certain groups of students has not been as much as we would like to see.”