Robert and Sarah Green, of Dittisham, Dartmouth, write:

Our son is at Dartmouth Academy and we are obviously very concerned about the recent Ofsted report.

However, we feel that it does not reflect his or our experience of the school to date.

Our son is happy and thriving at the academy. He and his friends appear keen to learn and some of the teaching seems to be genuinely inspiring.

With the recent rebuild, the school now has a fantastic physical environment and there appears to be a very positive attitude and atmosphere around the campus.

Whenever we have attended school open days and other functions, we have found well-behaved children who are ­confident and keen to demonstrate and talk about the work they have produced.

In short, it doesn’t feel like a failing school to us.

However, the academic results and the Ofsted report seem to be at odds with the experience we are having.

Nick Hindmarsh, the former principal, gave the impression that measures were being put in place to move the school towards that elusive ‘outstanding’ from Ofsted. We were obviously surprised to find that not only were these measures not working, but it would appear that the school has gone backwards.

For the past year Dartmouth Academy has been part of the multi-academy trust, with Roger Pope, principal at Kingsbridge Community College, at its helm.

During this time we feel that the advances made by the school have been reversed. Mr Pope has had a very successful career to date, and it would ­certainly appear that he is an incredibly capable principal – so much so that he is now

able to be head of the multi-academy trust and principal of Kingsbridge Community College on a part-time basis.

However, Dartmouth has to some extent received this Ofsted report ‘on his watch’. If the problems at Dartmouth were so pervasive, shouldn’t he and his leadership team have recognised this sooner and intervened? Perhaps that wasn’t within their remit, or perhaps there is a debate to be had over whether joining this particular organisation was the right thing to do.

Given that all schools are competing for pupils with their neighbouring schools, surely there is a conflict of interest in joining forces with the bigger and more successful Kingsbridge school.

Dartmouth is too small a school to go it alone and can certainly benefit from joining a larger organisation, but ­perhaps we should be looking further afield?

There are obviously a whole host of issues outlined in the Ofsted report and it would appear that Tina Graham, the acting principal, and her team have clearly started to move the school forward.

Dartmouth has the potential to be a great school and, with the support of the teaching staff and local parents, it absolutely will be.