A major Sussex school has been labelled "generally unsatisfactory" by the Government's education standards inspectors.

Boundstone Community College in Lancing, which has been placed under special measures since the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) report, is said to have been failing students with "weak" leadership and management from former head Glynis Cooke, who resigned last month.

Standards at the 1082-pupil-school have fallen dramatically since the last inspection in 1998.

In last year's GCSEs only girls studying art reached standards above the national average. In most other subjects the school's results were below average.

The report said: "Staff do not acknowledge a shared vision for the school or corporate aims and many do not think that they have been encouraged or enabled to take part in decision-making."

A small core of badly behaved pupils are blamed for disrupting lessons.

The number of students expelled from the school is described as high - 39 were excluded in the last school year, eight of them permanently.

The school also had a problem with teacher turnover and recruitment.

The report said: "The number of teachers and support staff is unsatisfactory."

Richard Evea, former headteacher of The Angmering School, is now acting head and will stay until August 31 next year.