COLNE VALLEY Specialist Arts College – the biggest school in Huddersfield – has been placed into special measures.

A damning report by Government inspectors from Ofsted has judged that it is failing and unable to improve without help from outside.

According to inspectors, students are often bored and not achieving their full potential, teaching is inadequate, leaders have little impact and the governing body is not doing enough.

Two weeks ago, the Linthwaite secondary school published its best-ever GCSE results, with 65% of pupils passing five GCSEs, including English and maths, which is above the national average of 58.6%.

However, the critical Ofsted report, published yesterday, did not come as a complete shock to many connected with the 1,288-pupil school.

Following the visit by four inspectors on December 18 and 19, rumours had been flying around the Colne Valley that the school was about to be placed into the dreaded special measures.

Kirklees Council has now launched an action plan to try to turn things around.

And Colne Valley MP Jason McCartney has called for urgent action.

He said: “There are deep areas of concern and it is extremely important that the headteacher and staff turn this around very, very quickly.

“This report is extremely worrying and if my child was there, I would be very worried about this.

“Measures from Kirklees Council’s rapid action plan need to be implemented as soon as possible to restore parents’ confidence in the school.

“The school has every capacity to improve.

“It is important to emphasise there are also good things going on there and I have every confidence that the action plan will turn things around.”