IT has been a difficult few months for the staff of York High School. The school was labelled ‘inadequate’ and placed in Special Measures following an Ofsted inspection in January. The inspectors said the school was “coasting”, and highlighted weak teaching, inadequate progress by pupils and high levels of absenteeism.

We pointed out at the time that this didn’t necessarily present a full picture of what was going on at the school.

Many of York High’s students come from more challenging backgrounds. Until Theresa May’s government brought in a more traditional style of exams, the school had been rated ‘good’, we said - and it was possible children at schools such as York High were being disadvantaged by the new exams.

Nonetheless, as we said earlier this year, we should be expecting the very best for all our children.

From next Spring, the school will be part of the South Bank Multi Academy Trust. David Ellis, who oversaw the creation of the school following the merger of Oaklands and Lowfield schools in 2007, and who has successfully forged a distinctive ethos at York High in the ten years since, is retiring.

His are big shoes to fill. But the man chosen to be the new head seems well suited to the job. Rod Sims is a former pupil of Westfield Primary. He grew up in Acomb, and has been a York High teacher for ten years. As associate head, he saw a 20 per cent year-on-year improvement in GCSE results in 2016.

This is clearly a man who knows the school and its pupils. We look forward to the school regaining the ‘good’ rating its children deserve.