St Sampson's failing in three out of four areas

It is the second school to be inspected under the new external agreement with Ofsted.

The new external inspection agreement with Ofsted was put in place last year. The four inspection grading categories are inadequate, requires improvement, good and excellent.

Quality of Education, Behaviour and attitudes and Leadership and Management were deemed 'inadequate', while Personal Development and Welfare was said to 'require improvement'.

The report said the quality of education at the school is not good enough, and that student's behaviour is poor and sometimes goes unchecked because staff do not apply behaviour policy consistently.

Students said they had little confidence that bullying would be stopped when reported leading to many students feeling unsafe at school.

SSHS principal Vicky Godley said it was clear the school was not delivering at the level everyone would expect.

'I am truly sorry for that,' she said.

'But I am absolutely committed to doing everything necessary to address the range of concerns identified by Ofsted,' she said.

Staff were said to be insufficiently skilled in subject curriculum design, behaviour management or approaches to supporting students with special educational needs and disabilities. Ofsted also said teacher's expectations of those students was too low.

ESC president president Andrew Dudley-Owen assured that action is being taken to rectify the issues highlighted in the report.

'The St Sampson’s High School community will I’m sure be concerned about the findings – as are we, but I want to take this opportunity to reassure that the report acknowledges that Mrs Godley has a clear understanding of what needs to change.'

The report highlighted a number of strengths including the delivery of artistic and cultural experiences and that students who read receive effective extra help.