Angry parents have accused Thomas Clarkson Academy Principal Clare Claxton of being “unapproachable” and failing to deal with complaints properly.

In an exchange of emails the parents claimed poor behaviour and bullying is still a “huge problem” and the school is failing to crackdown on both.

Concerns over the “enormous” turnover of staff were also raised with the group of 24 parents questioning why teachers are so unhappy at Thomas Clarkson they leave after only a short time. And they wanted to know how many have left by choice and how many have been forced out for failing to be up to standard.

They are also unhappy at what they claim are the regular changes in the school’s policy on tackling bad behaviour.

“You keep bringing out all these new policies to tackle bad behaviour and within just a few weeks, you change them. What is this teaching the poorly behaved students?” the parents questioned.

In a personal attack on Mrs Claxton the parents accused her of being “completely unapproachable” and “lacking in human kindness”.

However, Mrs Claxton hit back claiming staff turnover is far less this year than it was last year and that the quality of teaching is improving, as recognised by Ofsted earlier this year.

Staff are working very hard to respond swiftly to incidents of bullying and she pointed out the behaviour policy was changed in June this year after consultation and there have been no changes since.

Mrs Claxton apologised if parents found her unapproachable and said “this is totally unintentional” and offered to introduce an appointment system at future parents’ evenings.

Answering concerns raised over alleged misreporting of GCSE results, Mrs Claxton said results often change after publication and the Academy’s were slightly better than reported.

She asked parents to write individually so she can properly address concerns and offered to meet to discuss criticisms.