INSPECTORS have said a York secondary school is moving in the right direction after being told it needed to improve.

Ofsted visited Canon Lee School in Clifton for its first monitoring inspection since the school was judged to require improvement in September.

In a letter to the head, Christine Holbrey, inspector Honoree Gordon said: “The school is taking effective action to ensure it is good at its next inspection and suitable plans are in place to underpin this.

“Importantly, decisive measures taken in the summer term to tackle weaknesses in teaching and leadership are now beginning to bear fruit.

“A number of staff left at the end of the summer term and others are being supported effectively to improve. New staff are bringing fresh ideas.

“New staff appointed at senior leadership level have had time to begin to show impact, senior staff are driving forward the pace of change by modelling what the school expects. This is bringing on the middle leaders so that they, too, become more accountable for their areas and subjects.

“Despite some resistance, the head teacher is successfully moving the school forward.

“The school is now in a good position to develop staff teaching expertise further. The next steps are scheduled for spring term 2014.”

She said that action had been taken to address some weaker aspects of teaching, including:

• a new marking policy has been established and leaders are now checking that teachers apply this consistently

• a new, standardised means of planning lessons has been introduced

• systems to track the progress students make have been simplified, to encourage staff to make better use of this information when planning lessons

• steps have been taken in maths to more clearly identify those students who have special educational needs and those who are in receipt of the pupil premium funding, so that staff can pinpoint their progress better.

Miss Holbrey said: “We are delighted with the progression that the school is making and the letter from Ofsted, following their recent visit, has acknowledged the positive changes that are taking place.

“We have a clear and defined strategy in place to ensure that we keep moving in the right direction. Our focus is to ensure that every student that enters the doors of Canon Lee School is given the best educational experience possible. My thanks go to the staff, governors, students and parents for their continued commitment.”