AN OFSTED inspection at a struggling Winsford school has ruled it is making ‘satisfactory’ progress.

Verdin High School was placed into special measures last May after the level of students achieving five A to C’s at GCSE, including English and maths, fell below the national average for the third year running.

The May report criticised low exam results, teaching standards, pupil behaviour, goal setting and the school’s methods of monitoring achievement.

But after sitting-in on 26 lessons on November 25 and 26, monitoring inspectors found the school to be making progress in all areas bar one.

It concluded that behaviour and standards of teaching were improving, along with procedures to monitor students’ progress and achievements.

However, it found there was still work to be done on raising standards and improving achievement to make sure pupils achieve in line with their capabilities.

It read: “Behaviour in lessons and around the school has improved. Students are clearer about what is expected of them and know the consequences if they misbehave.

“Positive steps have been taken to improve the quality of teaching. A robust system for regular lesson observations is now established. All teachers are receiving professional development that is tightly focused on individual needs.

"However, there remain too many instances where learning is not good enough to accelerate students’ progress and enable them to catch up on lost ground."

Over the coming months the school must now aim to clamp down on the small minority of students who disrupt lessons; boost attendance and further improve its monitoring systems.

Headteacher Martin Howlett said students and staff are extremely proud of the school’s progress so far.

He said: “Students, staff and parents have been very supportive and focused on moving the school forward so that we can continue to be proud of the schools achievements.

“The standard and achievements judgement can only be satisfactory when examination results for this academic year also show the progress. It is however a fantastic achievement to reach these gradings on the first HMI Inspection Report.