A HEADTEACHER has resigned after a devastating government report detailed a catalogue of weaknesses at her failing secondary school.

The governors who presided over the decline at Stretford High School Community Language College have been stripped of most of their powers by the local education authority which has placed it on "special measures'' to bring in extra resources to restore standards.

The moves follow a crushing Ofsted report which highlights unsatisfactory leadership and poor teaching in many classes where staff allowed a large and "significant'' minority of deliberately disruptive pupils to ruin lessons.

Unsatisfactory attendance, poor punctuality, unsatisfactory attitudes and behaviour, high staff turnover - six of those who left were known to be unhappy with the way the school was run - and severe overspending were also revealed in the report.

Academic standards were "well below the national average" and achievement was "unsatisfactory".

The report, which admitted that working in the school was "challenging... but not uniquely so", prompted the resignation of headteacher Karen Todd.

Apathy among some pupils appears to be mirrored by parents. Only 75 completed a questionnaire for the inspectors and more than half of them expressed concern about behaviour in and around the school.

"Too often pupils who want to learn are prevented from doing so by the disruptive and unco-operative behaviour of other pupils. On several occasions during the inspection, pupils deliberately set out to disrupt lessons. Conduct in corridors and around school is also unsatisfactory, with examples of lack of respect and inconsiderate and noisy behaviour from pupils in all year groups," said the report.

At a meeting with inspectors, parents claimed that some teachers weren't skilled enough to control unruly behaviour. The report added: "This was borne out by the inspection."

Stress

It went on: "Too often teachers settled for talking across the constant background of chatter. Teacher absence last year was as high as that of the pupils, a measure of the stress that many of them are under. Weaknesses in leadership and management are the blame for much of this."

Among the few areas of school life to be praised were the care offered for individual pupils and the "good" relationships between the school's diverse cultural groups at the mixed sex 746-pupil school, 78 per cent of which are from ethnic minority groups, mostly of Indian and Pakistani heritage.

The chairman of governors, Andrea Jones, said: "The governors are committed to working closely with the LEA to tackle the many issues which Ofsted criticised the school for. We want to restore strong leadership and management and improve the learning environment for pupils. We will not be satisfied until this has been achieved and the special measures designation has been removed."

After slating the behaviour of the pupils and the standard of the teaching, the report then goes on to criticise the leadership and management of the headteacher and governors.

The leadership was "very good" at pastoral care and concern for individual pupils but "ineffective" in ensuring pupils achieve their education. Some of the governors were ignorant of the school's plight and failed until recently to challenge the management, it said.

"There is no clear overall leadership," said the report, while time was wasted by senior staff blaming others instead of encouraging good teaching.

Senior staff set their sights too low and used excuses like the area's deprivation, the fact all their pupils had failed the 11-plus and the fact that for many pupils English was a second language, according to the report.

Chief executive of Trafford's Children and Young People's Service, Chris Pratt, said it had been necessary to take back powers over the budget and staffing from the school, pending further discussions with the school's governors.

"By intervening in this way and having a robust action plan in place at the school, we can continue to work with the governors and staff in a focussed, effective way. This will allow us to improve the situation at the school and raise standards to an acceptable level as quickly as possible," he added.

Karen Hopwood, of the teaching union NASUWTs, said badly-behaved pupils were a growing problem.

She said the "blame and claim" culture meant trouble-makers threatened teachers who tried to stop them. The pupils made false allegations that could ruin teachers' careers.

"It is putting a lot of stress on teachers. If they reprimand pupils they use our litigation society by saying, 'I will get you back by accusing you of assault'."