PARENTS of pupils at Bradford's biggest secondary school have been asked to give staff 12 months to turn it around after a damning Ofsted report.

Dominic Wall, chief executive of the Southfield Grange Trust which runs Grange Technology College, called an emergency meeting with parents, staff and leaders of the beleaguered academy after it was plunged into special measures last week.

Mr Wall told about 100 parents and family members last night that the school's shortcomings were not acceptable, but that it could rally.

He said the report was 'hard reading' but said each aspect would be addressed and that a plan was going to be put together as early as this Saturday and put before Ofsted and parents before the end of term.

"We have got to work as a team to see what we can do differently and better. The fight to turn around the school starts in September."

The school with 1,837 students was rated inadequate in effectiveness of leadership and management, quality of teaching, outcomes for pupils and in its 16 to 19 study programmes. It requires improvement in personal development, behaviour and welfare.

Parents at the meeting voiced their dismay at the results with many blaming inadequate teaching and overuse of supply teachers. One parent even said their child had been in classes where there had been no teacher.

Others said they were looking at getting outside tutors for their child to help them while others said there was a lack of structure with things like homework and exam preparation.

Many said they had asked for meetings with teachers that never happened.

Mr Hall said all the parents had legitimate concerns and all concerns would be addressed but he also asked for co-operation from them in areas such as persistent absences which 'dragged results down'. He also implored them to think about becoming governors or trustees so they could hold the school to account. He said the present governors were willing to step aside to welcome new members.

He also wanted to reassure parents that despite the failings, staff were determined to learn how to improve and help students. "The school has not done a good enough job so students could achieve the standards they should do and we are very sorry about not being effective, but we can improve.

"We have a diverse group of students, some of whom are very talented and others who didn't go to a primary school in this country.

"We have to help our students progress by asking them to do more difficult work. We are going to tell them they will be stretched and challenged so they can achieve their best.

"We are going to work with outstanding schools such as Guiseley and Oldham so we can learn now to be outstanding. It is our job to train our teachers to be experts so they can teach students with different challenges."