THE headteacher of St Peter's School in Wrecclesham has responded to claims in an Ofsted report that she "does not provide clear enough direction and leadership".
Pam Williams told The Herald that the report was "exaggerated" and said that the inspection had come "at an unfortunate time of the year".
Ofsted inspectors, who visited St Peter's between April 26 and 30 this year, found "serious weaknesses" at the school.
Their report stated: "Although the strengths and weaknesses of the school are broadly balanced in terms of number, nevertheless, this school has serious weaknesses.
"The school has made unsatisfactory progress since the last inspection. There are many weaknesses from the last report which have not been satisfactorily addressed."
But the most serious problems found related to the leadership and management of the school, where they judged: "The headteacher does not provide clear enough direction and leadership and governors do not have enough impact upon the strategic management and oversight of the school's work."
The report also highlighted an unsatisfactory standard of teaching in Key Stage Two, with 22 per cent of lessons described as unsatisfactory and unsatisfactory health and safety procedures for pupils.
Mrs Williams said: "I disagree with the comments about myself but I won't ignore it. I am not going to reject any criticism and I think every institution can improve and we will look at how to do that.
"Our SAT results have gone from strength to strength and our results for 11 year olds have gone from below the national average to above the average. That has happened in the 10 years I have been here and if you haven't got leadership you can't achieve that.
"The inspection was a case of unfortunate timing - we had four new governors at the time who were still learning the ropes and the deputy chairman was dealing with an illness in his family.
"But we have a very strong senior management who do a brilliant job and I think the statements in the report were exaggerated."
The school was praised by inspectors for the attitudes of pupils towards learning, standards of behaviour, relationships within the school and the personal development of pupils.
Special praise was also given to social and cultural development and the provision of extra-curricular activities.
SAT figures for 1999 supplied by the school show improvements in all three of the core subjects at Key Stage Two. In maths the number of pupils achieving level four rose by 7 per cent to 70 per cent while in English it went up 11 per cent to 77 per cent and there was a rise of 27 per cent to 93 per cent in science.
Mrs Williams said: "My vision for the school has always been to provide a happy environment for learning so that we can develop thoughtful and caring children. I think we have succeeded in doing that."