A SHAMBOLIC free school has recorded some of the worst GCSE results in England.

Parkfield School was the worst-performing school in Dorset and sits firmly at the bottom of league tables released by the Department for Education.

Only 33 out of the thousands of secondary schools across the country had a lower score in the new measure called progress 8.

And bosses at the school, situated at Bournemouth Airport, have admitted its performance is "utterly unacceptable."

As a free school, Parkfield is funded by the government but is out of local authority control.

It has been handed tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers money.

Progress 8 monitors the progress made in eight subjects between the end of primary school and GCSEs.

The subjects include English and maths, as well as other English Baccalaureate subjects such as science.

A score of +1.0 or more means a school is exempt from routine Ofsted inspections for a year due to its success.

Those with a score of -0.5 or lower are considered to be under the floor standard and will be subject to close monitoring.

Parkfield had a score of -1.36.

Ian Golding, interim head teacher, said: "While the leaders and governors of Parkfield recognise that this P8 score was utterly unacceptable, it is important to consider some key points.

"The score was based on a very small cohort of children and a significant number of these students arrived at Parkfield in Year 10 and 11 after struggling in mainstream schools.

"Indeed, many of these pupils had been out of the education system for months, if not years and some were not able to complete all of the courses necessary to have all the P8 slots filled with an exam result.

"We have implemented a range of plans that have led to significant change at Parkfield, and as a result we are forecasting a much improved P8 score for 2018."

Earlier this month the Daily Echo revealed the school has to pay back £772,000 in grant money to the government after receiving money for more pupils than it enrolled.

It also reported a net deficit of £278,966 for the year ended August 2017 and expects another shortfall this year.

The school has no sponsor and the interim head teacher plans to leave by July at the latest.

The troubled school has been graded as Requires Improvement by Ofsted.

It moved from a former office block in Bournemouth to its new site in September after attempts to find a suitable town centre site failed.

Christchurch MP Sir Chris Chope said has previously said the school can become a "great educational asset".

Asked if his opinion had changed in light of the results, he said: "No, it hasn't.

"With all they've had to go through, I would be surprised if they had done very well.

"Now they are settled in terms of having a good location, a cohort of pupils and stable staffing, let's hope it delivers better results in the future."