A Dozen schools in Sussex are failing to provide adequate education, according to Government body Ofsted.

Two schools were subject to special measures because standards were so poor, six were identified as having serious weaknesses, two classed as underachieving and two served notices to improve.

Ofsted publishes a termly report of schools it is concerned about. The latest report is from autumn last year.

Abbotsford Special School in Burgess Hill and Castledown Primary and Nursery School in Hastings were in special measures.

East Hoathly Primary School near Hailsham, Hollington Primary School in St Leonards, Colgate Primary School in Horsham, Greenway School in Horsham, St Lawrence's Primary School in Hurstpierpoint and St Nicolas and St Mary First and Middle School in Shoreham were identified as having serious weaknesses.

Herne Junior School in Crowborough and Ferring Primary School near Worthing were underachieving while Boundstone Community College in Lancing and Chichester High School For Boys were served notices to improve.

Headteachers of schools classed as underachieving or with serious weaknesses said the current Ofsted system was unfair because they had to wait as long as two years before they could come out of the category while schools in special measures only had to wait one year.

Paul Dyer, head of St Lawrence's Primary, said: "Our SATs results were in the top 20 per cent nationally and we came 13th out of 165 schools in West Sussex in terms of value added. Our progress report is very positive but we are still labelled as having serious weaknesses and cannot get rid of that for another year."

Colgate Primary head Catherine Scott said monitoring reports were good and she expected to move out of the serious weakness category at its next inspection later this year.

Ofsted monitoring reports were also positive at Hollington, East Hoathly and St Nicolas and St Mary's primary schools.

The report includes schools that have dramatically improved such as community colleges Seaford Head and Manhood in Chichester, which have been removed from special measures.

Manhood head Mark Vickers said: "Morale is brilliant. Ofsted even noted how proud students were of the college."

He said changes including new staff, improved management structure, increasing student involvement and a more personalised curriculum had helped.

A West Sussex County Council spokeswoman said: "We offer help and guidance to schools identified as having weaknesses."