An academy’s first Ofsted report has said it requires improvement, but officials at the school say the outcome was expected and they are on track for the targets set.

Inspectors recognised the difficulties Felixstowe Academy has experienced in merging the two previous high schools, Deben and Orwell, and still working across two sites while a new £20million building is constructed.

However, the Ofsted team said the academy’s leadership team and governors had clearly identified the academy’s strengths and weaknesses and were already making rapid improvements – and achievement was rising.

One of the biggest criticisms was that there was not enough good teaching and some was inadequate, with teachers not setting challenging enough work, and students’ learning not being monitored effectively enough.

Principal Andrew Salter said the Ofsted report was in line with the academy’s own evaluation of its current position, and recognised the difficulties in bringing two very different schools on two sites together. He said: “We are on a journey in a period of great change.

“I am building and leading a team of committed professionals, who are as passionate as I am in delivering an outstanding educational experience in Felixstowe and surrounding area.

“I want to ensure that all young people have the same opportunities to realise their potential in developing skills and talents that will enable them to compete on an equal basis for places in education, beyond the academy, and in the world of work with other young people nationally.

“I also want our young people to be good and responsible citizens, caring for each other and for the community in which they live.

“We are well aware that there is a distance to travel on this journey to becoming an ‘outstanding’ academy, and that there is much for us to do in winning the hearts and minds of parents/carers and the wider community in sharing this vision.”