Parents branded last night's crisis meeting at Castle Community College "a waste of time" after their questions went repeatedly unanswered.

Chiefs from the interim management firm SchoolsCompany and the school's governors would not confirm whether Castle is going into special measures after last month's Ofsted inspection.

In the same week they announced former principal Philip Bunn had left, the governors faced calls to step down too after effectively privatising the running of the school.

The firm's director Elias Achilleos was heckled by the crowd, who accused him of "dropping himself in it" when refusing to confirm special measures rumours.

He said: "I believe this can become a great school again," and "We are working in lots of other challenging schools too," prompting outrage from mums and dads.

Castle has been graded an outstanding school in previous inspections but the school has refused to comment on the feedback it received from inspectors after the last visit in March.

"You keep dropping yourself in it. I think you know a little bit more than you are letting on"- parent

Ofsted has not published its report yet, but the Mercury understands feedback would have been given immediately by inspectors.

A parent told Mr Achilleos: "You keep dropping yourself in it.

"I think you know a little bit more than you are letting on."

But the team maintained it was frustrating for them too, not having the official report.

School governor Patrick Collins conceded there have been issues with behaviour and there were cries from the crowd that some pupils have had five teachers in Science since September.

After the meeting, which was cut short during questions and answers time, parent Jane Woods said: "I've always been an advocate of this school, but they have not informed us there have been problems, and that they had Lilac Skies in since September to help with standards."

For the full reaction, see the Mercury next Thursday.