Colne Valley High School has had a poor Ofsted report ... five years after it was put into special measures.
The school has been rated as ‘requires improvement’ in its first Ofsted report since it was established as an academy.
Following a damning Ofsted report in December 2012 the school was placed in special measures which under Government regulation meant it had to convert to an academy.
It also had a new executive principal Lorraine Barker who is in charge of the Mirfield Free Grammar and Sixth Form Multi-Academy Trust which is in overall control of Colne Valley High,
As new academies are not fully inspected until their third year of operation it only received its first Ofsted inspection as an academy last month.
‘Requires improvement’ is just one grade above ‘inadequate’, which would have placed the academy back into special measures.
It has been rated as ‘requires improvement’ in all the aspects of the report which states: “The progress pupils are making is not consistently good because the quality of teaching is variable across and within subjects.”
It found that teachers at the 1,181-pupil school need to ensure they check pupils’ work in lessons and challenge all students, especially the lower ability ones.
But it recognised that the most able students are well-supported.
Other key findings included that boys are poorly behaved and that disadvantaged pupils are often absent from the Linthwaite school.
It also noted that leaders and managers need to communicate better with parents about resolving bullying incidents.
At the time of the inspection in mid June a new senior leadership team had just been appointed.
The former principal Christian Wilcocks left shortly before the inspection and Jimmy Christian, one of the academy’s vice principals, was promoted as his replacement.
Meanwhile, Mrs Liz Singleton, who previously worked for Kirklees Council and Ofsted, took over Mr Christian’s role as vice principal.
And Mrs Donna Watkins and Mr Sam Moncaster had both been appointed as vice principals for teaching and learning, as well as performance management and training.
The report stated: “The trust is now providing strong and effective support for the school. The executive principal from the trust is supporting new leadership well.”
It added: “Leaders have overcome difficulties in filling vacancies by using innovative methods for recruitment. They have appointed overseas teachers and retrained some of their own teachers so they can teach a wider range of subjects.”
In a letter to parents, Mr Christian said: “This judgement reflects the significant progress made by the school since the previous inspection.
“This is the judgement we expected given the low starting point and the fact that last year’s results were not where we wanted them to be and hence could not be graded as better than ‘requiring improvement’.”
