One of north Cumbria's largest schools has been heavily criticised by the education regulator - prompting the headteacher to lodge a formal complaint about the way it was inspected.

Inspectors have downgraded their judgement of William Howard School in Brampton from "good", given back in 2012, to "requires improvement".

Chris McAree, the newly-appointed head of the 1,500-pupil secondary school, believes the overall judgement has been based on the exam results of a handful of disadvantaged pupils who left the school last summer.

Mr McAree and the William Howard Trust which runs it, also claim that Ofsted's report published today contains inaccuracies.

The News & Star also understands that staff are deeply unhappy about the lack of dialogue with inspectors during the two-day visit last month.

Key findings of the eight inspectors who visited last month include:

* The actions taken by leaders and governors over the last two years have not ensured that all pupils in the school make the best progress possible;

* The progress made by disadvantaged pupils was significantly below that expected from their starting points, particularly in maths.

* Despite the school's strong focus on the progress of disadvantaged pupils, the differences in outcomes between this group of pupils and other pupils nationally are not diminishing rapidly enough.

Teaching was also criticised as was the curriculum and reading and writing.

Mr McAree said: "A small cohort of our disadvantaged students faced numerous challenges such as mental health issues, attendance or social care concerns.

"The problems encountered by the students were addressed and the list of interventions with each of them was extensive."

A school's success is no longer measured by the number of GCSEs a child leaves with at the age of 16.

Progress 8 is one of the new government measures introduced as part of nationwide reforms to exams which is hoped will fairer illustrate the impact a school has on children over the course of their secondary education, between the ages of 11 and 16.

Mr McAree, who also states the inspectors' report contains "contradictions", said: "This group did not achieve positive Progress 8 scores and consequently this had a detrimental effect on the overall progress level of the entire disadvantaged group.

"Background information, reports and data were shared with inspectors but it was evident they were only interested in the progress data of this group of 25 students.

"The reality is that there were a higher number of disadvantaged pupils who did make good progress than did not, but this was clearly not taken into consideration. To sweepingly say that disadvantaged outcomes were all weak, I feel is not accurate."

Chris Irving, chairman of the school's local advisory board (LAB), said: "We reluctantly accept the Ofsted judgement, but it is certainly not one that reflects the school in its entirety. The trust board, LAB, headteacher and staff feel strongly that the inspectors' understanding and assessments do not accurately evaluate the school and, I am sure the vast majority of our parents, staff and students would agree."

In a breakdown of their findings, inspectors judged three categories - leadership and management; quality of teaching, learning and assessment, and outcomes for pupils - as "requires improvement".

Sixth form provision and personal development, behaviour and welfare of pupils are judged to be "good".

Lorrayne Hughes, executive headteacher of the Brampton school and chief executive of the William Howard Trust which runs it, said: "We were already aware of some of the issues that the inspection has highlighted and the school action plan to address these has been in operation since September.

"Furthermore, we are confident that our robust self-evaluation, which outlines our many strengths, and which also clearly identifies key areas of improvement, is a more accurate overview of the school."

Inspectors did highlight positives including the impact of new reading schemes for the youngest pupils, good progress being made by children with special educational needs, effective safeguarding, positive relationships between staff and pupils, and good careers advice and guidance.