THE chair of governors has condemned Ofsted inspectors for marking his school down because of students using the word gay as an insult.

Brighton Aldridge Community Academy has not managed to shake off its Requires Improvement status following the inspection.

The children using the word gay as an insult was one of 11 reasons given by the education watchdog as to why it did not improve to ‘Good’.

The school, formerly Falmer High, was inspected at the beginning of December and immediately lodged an official complaint before the report was made public refuting the findings.

In her report, Diana Choulerton said: “Some students do not take not of the academy’s clear message that using the word “gay” as an insult is not acceptable.

“Senior leaders and governors hold an over-generous view of students’ behaviour.”

But chair of governors Peter Kyle hit back at the report and said it was an incident taken completely out of context.

He said: “This was said by one student out of the earshot of a teacher, so they couldn’t see how swiftly it would have been dealt with by staff.

“Unfortunately, it’s common in our society but we still take it very seriously.

“That’s even reported in the findings – it says students are clear the academy does not tolerate discriminatory language – so it’s completely contradictory.

“Myself and a number of staff at the school are openly gay, so this is an area we take very personally.”

Although the report makes note of the students’ improved achievement since the last inspection, it says they are still lagging behind in some classes.

Inspectors found boys to drift away from tasks in lessons and cause disruption and that there were too many incidents of boisterous behaviour around the school.

The report also said the school is failing to close the gap when it comes to disadvantaged pupils, but Dr Kyle said when he came the school the gulf between pupils on free school meals and those not was 38%.

The national difference is 27% on average, and the difference at BACA is now 4%.

In order for the school to make the step up to a Good rating, inspectors said it needs to improve the quality of teaching and leadership, improve students’ achievement to be in line with national figures in maths and so that boys’ attainment match the girls and make sure that all students understand why using the word “gay” as an insult is unacceptable.