A council leader has sympathised with a school rated inadequate by Ofsted.

Education inspectors said Alec Hunter Humanities College in Braintree had weak teaching and pupils were under-achieving.

Braintree Council leader Graham Butland, who visited Alec Hunter in October, said: “I visited Alec Hunter and I was very impressed with the behaviour of the students, the rapport between students and teachers in the classroom.

“When I came out I was having difficulty reconciling what I actually saw with the school’s reputation."