A SCHOOL has been told to make changes after inspectors downgraded it from “good” to “requires improvement”.

Claydon High School was visited by Ofsted inspectors last month who reported the standards in GCSE physical eduction, drama and music are consistently below average, the quality of teaching is too variable and the school’s development plans are not sharp enough.

The report also noted that over the past three years, the main focus of the headteacher and governing body has been on reducing the budget deficit and closing the sixth form and “not enough attention has been given to improving teaching and students’ achievement”.

Lead inspector Mark Phillips noted the school can make improvements in many areas such as by making teaching more challenging and more interesting by using local authority support to ensure that the teaching of maths is good and make sure that marking and written feedback are consistently good by summer 2013.

He also noted that the school can improve achievement by “increasing the summer 2013 GCSE mathematics average grade score, and the progress made by students in mathematics, so that both are above the national average” and ensure students who attend college or work placements achieve better exam results and show better attendance.

The Ofsted report also highlighted the school’s strengths – the number of exclusions has fallen, attendance has improved and around a third of all students study biology, chemistry and physics as three separate science subjects at GCSE

Headteacher Sarah Skinner said: “We are delighted that improvements in attendance and a reduction in exclusions was recognised and that science, history, geography and languages were highlighted as subjects where students achieve well. We are aware that there are areas that need to be developed and we have an ongoing programme to work on improving these.

“We are receiving excellent support from the local authority and will continue to work tirelessly to improve outcomes for students.”