A PRINCIPAL says his school's "very disappointing" Ofsted report is "heavily biased" towards past academic results.

Inspectors rated Pembroke Park Primary School in Salisbury as "inadequate" and said it had "serious weaknesses".

But head Matt Sambrook, who joined the school in September 2014, said the school was making rapid progress.

He said of the inspection which took place on February 26 and 27: "It was a challenging few days as the historic legacy of the school and results at the end of last year were very poor.

"This has inevitably led to judgements for the school that are very disappointing as they are heavily biased towards what the school was like before the current academic year."

Inspectors found teaching, achievement and behaviour and safety, were inadequate, while provision for the youngest pupils was good, and the leadership and management required improvement.

Key weaknesses included underachievement in Key Stages 1 and 2, low teachers' expectations, work that was too easy, low attainment in reading, writing and maths and poor attitudes to learning.

But the report said the new leadership team was starting to "redress a legacy of declining achievement", pupils’ progress was accelerating and teaching was improving.

Inspectors’ highlighted “the drive and determination of the new headteacher" and said leaders had "rigorously tackled historical weaknesses in teaching”.

The report said monitoring of staff and pupils had improved, and a new curriculum “better suited to pupils’ needs” was being introduced.

And it said a new behaviour policy with “clear and high expectations” was beginning to have a “positive impact” while attendance had "improved markedly this academic year”.

Pembroke Park became an academy in April 2013.

Lizzie Rowe, deputy chief executive of the academy's sponsor, the Education Fellowship, said she was disappointed much of the report focused on the time before the new principal joined.

She acknowledged there was "much to do" but said she was "heartened by the positive comments".

"We are determined that inspectors will notice further huge improvements by the time of their first monitoring visit in a few months’ time," she said.