An official complaint made against an Ofsted report which said a school “requires improvement” has not been upheld.

The head teacher at Longhill High School in Falmer Road, Rottingdean, branded the original report “illogical and irrational” after the school was told to improve after an inspection in October last year.

The Brighton and Hove City Council secondary school, which previously boasted a “good with outstanding features” rating, said the downgrading was “surprising”.


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In his complaint head teacher Haydn Stride claimed there had been serious procedural shortcomings and demanded a new inspection by a different team.

He also contested it with Tribal Group, the company that carried out the report under contract to Ofsted.

Tribal said the original report was fair and a new inspection will not take place. It added the complaint to Ofsted had also not been upheld In a letter to parents and pupils Mr Stride said he must “accept their judgements”.

He said: “I have put into place a vigorous sequence of monitoring visits and future inspections from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate (HMI) across this year.

“I have already arranged monitoring visits from the local authority and HMI.

“Their feedback supports the additional strategies the school has now in place to enhance teaching and learning and the progress of our students.”

An external HMI inspector visited the school on Tuesday.

Mr Stride said: “The outcome of this visit will be in the form of an official letter, which I will publish to all parents.

“I intent to repeat this process each half term to demonstrate to parents the progress we are making, supported by the HMI across this next year.”

Mr Stride, who said he had the support of parents, added: “I intend to keep you informed each half term of each inspection that I will arrange to enable you the confidence that the school is meeting the requirements to move back to our ‘good’ rating as quickly as possible.

“It will probably be after this year’s results have been received, where I will invite another full inspection to enable the judgement change.

“This will be a hard year for us at school but the outcome will be ultimately a positive one.”