A YORK school has been praised for its progress in a monitoring inspection after special measures were imposed last year.

Education experts were back at Canon Lee School in early March this year, and have praised the way the school has worked hard to turn its fortunes around in the last five months.

Leaders and managers at the school have been praised for taking "effective action" to get the school out of special measures; while both the council and the school are said to have improvement plans which are "fit for purpose".

The school's executive head teacher Richard Crane said: "I am absolutely delighted with the rapid progress that the school has made. The staff and students have all worked extremely hard and this positive recognition of their efforts is well deserved."

Although Canon Lee is still not allowed to take on any newly qualified teachers, the inspectors said having the new executive head teacher had brought stability to the school while the other senior leaders had acted decisively to tackle the problems.

The inspectors looked at five different areas in their report - leadership and management; quality of teaching, learning and assessment; outcomes for pupils; external support; personal development, behaviour and welfare.

Most still have areas for improvement, but the inspectors have spoke of the progress so far and wrote about input from pupils who say a "stricter" atmosphere has lead to a stronger focus on learning, and that they feel more challenged in their lessons.

In addition, they said teachers have injected their lessons with "increasing purpose" and "innovative strategies" to the benefit of pupils.

One English teacher came in for praise, with the inspectors saying the lesson they watched showed feedback being used well to help the Year 11 students progress.

Feedback was one area that needs improvement more broadly, however, with the "vague or formulaic" comments offered by some teachers not measuring up to the inspectors' standards.

Attendance is on the rise, the report shows, even among key groups like those children who qualify for free school meals, and others who have special educational needs or a disability, while pupils in Year 11 who are approaching their important GCSE exams are making rapid progress in English and Maths. Improvement plans need to be clarified and given more detail, particularly for year groups other than Year 11.

The inspection was the first in a series of monitoring reports the school will have in the light of special measures being put in place late last year.