THE PRINCIPAL of one of Brighton’s largest schools has left the school after an investigation revealed published exam results were higher than they should have been.

James Fox will not be returning to Portslade Aldridge Community Academy after the school found students were wrongly registered as guest students, bumping up its overall GCSE results in Department for Education (DfE) tables.

PACA’s local authority governor, Rosalind Turner, said in a statement this evening Mr Fox had a duty to ensure information given to the DfE was correct and published information accurate.

She added: “The governors also believe that parents have a fundamental right to have accurate data and information on which to make their decisions about schooling.

“The governors have agreed to end the contract of the Principal, Mr. James Fox. He will not be returning to the school.” The school has confirmed this was by mutual consent.

The school, in Chalky Road, Portslade, said the only year affected was 2012/13, when the school’s benchmark result for the number of students achieving five or more passes at A* - C at GCSE, including maths and English, was reported as 60%, when it should have been reported as 55.6%.

The investigation found that 12 students were wrongly registered that year as guests, meant for students who attend the school but remain registered elsewhere.

Because they were not on the census return provided by the school to the DfE, their exam results were not included in the school’s overall published GCSE results.

The school said this evening the findings of its investigation had been reported to the DfE and did not affect PACA’s position in Brighton’s school league tables in that year.

A spokesman added: “Having risen from 38% the previous year, PACA’s corrected rise of 17.6 percentage points was still the largest in the city in 2012/13.”

Mr Fox, who joined the school in 2013, took a leave of absence in September when the investigation was launched.

Peter Marchant, the school’s executive director since September, will be interim director for the next two terms and the school will be recruiting a permanent head to start in September 2015.