Government inspectors say leadership is partly to blame for a north Cumbrian secondary school requiring improvement.

Ofsted says the leadership of William Howard School in Brampton was hit when its headteacher went to help transform two failing schools in Workington.

William Howard School refutes the statement with its leaders claiming it is among a number of inaccuracies contained in a new Ofsted report.

The report states "leadership was reduced" when Lorrayne Hughes was seconded to head up the failing Stainburn and Southfield Schools in Workington.

Deputy head Domenic Volpe was made head of school and governors gave assurances then that the day-to-day running would not be affected.

The then chairman of the governing body, Euan Cartwright, said: "We have been able, unreservedly, to reassure our staff, the students and their parents and the wider community that William Howard School will not be adversely affected during this period."

William Howard School later went on secure the right to become a sponsor and form a new multi-academy trust.

The trust now runs the Brampton secondary school, the new Workington Academy - formed by the merger of Stainburn and Southfield, as well as two primary schools - Yewdale in the west of Carlisle and Longtown.

A new headteacher and deputy head have also been appointed at William Howard School.

The revelation has emerged as inspectors downgraded their judgement of the 1,500-pupil secondary school from "good" in 2012 to "requires improvement" in 2016.

Newly-appointed headteacher Chris McAree has lodged a formal complaint with Ofsted objecting to the way the two-day inspection was conducted last month.

He also says that inspectors have based their overall findings on the progress made by a small minority of disadvantaged pupils - understood to be about 11 - who completed their GCSEs last summer.

Mr McAree also argues that the inspection report contains "contradictions".

Parents of the Brampton school were notified of Ofsted's findings earlier this week.

Mr McAree said: "There is a factual inaccuracy. The school’s leadership capacity was not reduced as the governing body appointed an interim head of school and an interim deputy headteacher, as well as associate members to the leadership team during this (Mrs Hughes's) secondment."
He added that the school has continued to perform well, appearing in the top half of the county's league tables with headlines results achieving national averages.

He continued: "The performance of the school (for some group of students) did drop during this period, but actions were being taken by the leadership of the school then in post to address this."

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."

A spokesman for Ofsted said: "We can confirm that we have received a complaint from the school. Ofsted takes all complaints very seriously and will consider them in line with our published procedures."

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.