Inspectors say that Chipping Sodbury School has made ‘positive steps’ in the right direction following a recent inspection.

The school was inspected in 2018 and was graded ‘Requires Improvement’ by Ofsted.

Now though inspectors have said that it is making good progress after returning to the school for a monitoring inspection last month.

The monitoring inspection took place on January 21 and found that the school had made several positive changes but the grade from 2018 can’t be changed.

The inspection was carried out by Kathy Maddocks, who was the lead when the school was assessed in 2018.

In her opening statement on the report it is stated: “Senior leaders and governors are taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement identified at the recent section 5 inspection in order for the school to become good.”

The report also found that students are continuing to improve across a number of subjects in the school: “You have ensured that standards continue to improve. In key stage 4, pupils are doing better in mathematics, science, English baccalaureate subjects and subjects within the wider curriculum.”

Decisions being made by the governing body and staff in leadership have improved, with the Ms Maddocks stating: “The chair leads the governing body well. He has an acute understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the school. He challenges leadership decisions appropriately.”

Headteacher Ms Turner said: “There are some real positives from the recent inspection.

“It is clear the school is moving forward, with a number of significant improvements being made.

“There are still some improvements to be made, we have recently hired a Literacy Co-ordinator which we hope will continue to drive forwards literacy across the whole curriculum.

“The report did find that students who are coming to the school below the average for literacy and maths are catching up with their peers, which is further evidence that students achieve at the school.

“One of our main priorities is that students feel valued and our staff work hard to ensure that is the case every day.

“We are continuing to work hard to make sure that the school, staff, students and parents get the positive result that we believe Sodbury deserves.”