GOVERNORS at a Bromsgrove school have been asked to step down after Ofsted inspectors took the extreme step of placing the school in Special Measures.

Parents and pupils at North Bromsgrove High have been shocked to learn that it has been classified as a failing school after a team of 17 inspectors visited in January.

North Bromsgrove is the first high school in Worcestershire to be put under special measures. The report reveals that last year it had one of the worst records for exclusions in the country.

The Ofsted inspectors will now pay regular visits to the school and keep a watchful eye on measures drawn up to redress the problems.

The damning report claims that the standard of education was poor, that pupils between years nine and 11 were not making the progress expected of them and the teaching was poor due to the school having been badly neglected over recent years.

Behaviour is unsatisfactory, the report says, because staff are not trained to deal with it.

And the finances are "in a mess" because of "very poor financial planning."

North's headteacher Clive Pemberton joined the school in early January just days before the inspection took place. He informed pupils of the report at an assembly yesterday (Tuesday) and sent letters home together with a summary of the report. He has invited parents to meet him next week to discuss the problem.

Claiming his school is not so black as it has been painted in the report, Mr Pemberton said: "None of us recognise the school in the report."

Previous head Kevin Peck, who left last July after 13 years to take over the headship at The Chase in Malvern, said: "None of the students, staff and parents who really know North Bromsgrove and the work my colleagues and I did there over 13 years will see this Ofsted report as anything other than a travesty."

Mr Peck added he is confident that the school will regain its good reputation.