I read with disbelief Stephen Gorard’s attack, first on Ofsted and then on our school, Greenwood Dale in Nottingham (“When improvement is a sham”, Letters, March 6). Our “crime”? To be one of 12 schools named by Ofsted as “outstanding in difficult circumstances”.

The distress his letter has caused in our school community is without precedent.

There is already overwhelming evidence showing the school to be, in all respects, an outstanding school and one where students make exceptional progress.

The one piece of data Professor Gorard produced to back up his premise that “inner-city schools cannot improve their results without changing their intake” does not stand up. Simply, the free school meals assumption he makes is not fit for purpose.

His insensitivity towards the feelings of staff and pupils who produce outstanding results in difficult circumstances defies understanding. At the start of Ofsted’s piece on us, it states: “Greenwood Dale is remarkable amongst remarkable schools ...”

This gives us an enormous amount of pride. It is so sad that it enrages Professor Gorard so much.

Barry Day, Headteacher, Greenwood Dale School, Nottingham.