GOVERNORS are outraged Bournemouth Borough Council went behind their back to question the Ofsted judgement on Townsend Primary School.

And chairman of the governors Andrew Rickett has warned other schools not to trust the local authority.

Mr Rickett said: "The local authority went behind the backs of the governors trying to get the school downgraded. My message to other schools is beware."

He only became aware that the local authority had queried some of Ofsted's positive comments on the school when he received a letter from the assistant divisional manager for school improvement at Ofsted, Susan Kara.

Inspectors visited the school earlier this year and their report said the school no longer needed to be in special measures. Despite this the council still wants to close the school.

When the local authority was given an opportunity to comment on the report before it was published, according to Ofsted, they "questioned the accuracy of the judgement relating to the increasing effectiveness of the governing body".

The inspection body however found that "a scrutiny of the evidence base supports the judgement that the effectiveness of governors is increasing, that they are well informed and provide support and challenge" and that "there is sufficient evidence to support the judgement that governance is satisfactory".

Mr Rickett is particularly upset the council did not contact the governors, or he believes the head teacher, to inform them they had some questions relating to the report. Cabinet member responsible for education Malcolm Davies said he was not aware that the local authority had put any pressure on Ofsted to change their judgement and that he did not know why the governors had not been informed.

He said that "the name of the game" was helping schools get better Ofsted reports.

Cllr Claire Smith, leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition on Bournemouth council, called on the council to produce its evidence for questioning Ofsted's draft findings.

"It's a completely unprecedented move. One has to question the motives for this given that this is so controversial," she said.

"For an authority to question Ofsted's findings, I find that quite surprising and possibly a little vindictive."

Jane Portman, executive director for children and families services at Bournemouth Borough Council, said: "Both the local authority and the school governors were asked by Ofsted if they had any comments on factual inaccuracies in the report on Townsend School. We wrote back to Ofsted to seek clarification and to check that they were aware that the budget for the school had been de-delegated from the school governors and we had further questions about the evidence used by Ofsted in reaching their judgement.

"We wanted to ensure that Ofsted had all the correct facts and information required in order for them to make their judgement about governance of the school."