THE QUALITY of learning and improving attendance at Marlwood School still requires work, eight months after it was placed into special measures, say inspectors.

The secondary school in Alveston, which was graded as “inadequate” last May by education watchdog Ofsted, was told it needed to improve on a number of issues including its leadership and management, its teaching and the attendance of pupils, as well as their personal development, behaviour and welfare.

Currently the school, which is part of the Castle School Education Trust (CSET) has 635 pupils on its roll, a noticeable decline over the last few years, with the school consequently revising its staffing structure.

During last year’s visit, inspectors said the decline in standards at the school had been “characterised by low expectations at all levels”, with the low expectations of senior leaders having resulted in similar standards of middle leaders, teachers and pupils.

Governors in turn were criticised for not having an accurate understanding of the school, failing to challenge schools leaders effectively.

Attendance was also considered an issue with the numbers of pupils regularly in lessons below the national average

During the visit over January 24-25, inspector Andrew Lovett identified that progress had been made, with leaders and managers taking effective action towards the removal of special measures, and the trust’s statement of action and the school’s improvement plans both being fit for purpose.

The report said that head teacher James Pope and his senior team “have made their expectations of their subject leaders much more explicit”, and that there is now a “strong framework of accountability in place”, with subject leaders saying they are clear what is expected of them.

Inspectors said, however, that pupils’ absence “has not been addressed with sufficient vigour by school leaders”, with attendance, particularly of vulnerable groups of pupils, having been poor for some time, and showing “no signs of improvement”.

While there are “signs of improvement”, the report criticised the quality of teaching, learning and assessment as “not being of a consistently good standard”, prevent pupils from making progress they are capable of.

The level of expectation of what pupils can achieve, however is now higher in a good proportion of classes and where this is the case, pupils are responding well.

The Gazette is awaiting a comment from the school.