Robin Precey, 54, quit Seaford Head community college in East Sussex last week after the Office for Standards in Education put the school into special measures.

Mr Precey is a consultant with the National College for School Leadership.

He also answered heads’ questions on The TES’s leadership pages.

He said: “I feel very sad and quite angry. I have passed on my comments about the new inspections framework to the Secondary Heads Association because I believe it to be very harsh.”

Mr Precey’s decision to leave comes ahead of the publication of the inspection report which is expected next month. He has worked in education for more than 30 years, 13 of them as head of the 1,400-pupil school.

It is understood that inspectors found standards unsatisfactory on four counts - including teaching and learning, and leadership.

Jon Freeman, a school governor and mayor of Seaford, admitted recently that the school had to accept it was partly responsible for yobbish behaviour in the town.

An action plan was being drawn up to turn the school around within 18 months.

Peter Bratton, a former head currently working for the consultancy Cambridge Education Associates, will take over as acting head. A permanent appointment will be made for September.

Seaford Head got a glowing Ofsted report in 1997. The change is being blamed on a dramatic growth in pupil numbers and cramped conditions on a split site.

The NCSL said that it would look at the report before reviewing Mr Precey’s position.

Ofsted review 8, DAVID BELL 21