A Wolverhampton school placed in special measures less than 6 months ago has received further praise for efforts being made to turn it around.

New Park School, in Whitmore Reans, Wolverhampton, was rated as "inadequate" by Ofsted inspectors in February shortly after the city council implemented an improvement plan to bring about necessary changes.

These changes included appointing an Interim Executive Board to support and challenge the school and the appointment of a new interim executive head and headteacher.

And the local authority's latest assessment, carried out by an independent inspector, has shown the school has made progress in raising educational attainment, improving attendance and pupil behaviour and enhancing the learning environment.

This follows Ofsted's own follow up inspection last month, which found the school's new management team had worked "swiftly and effectively to make the school a calmer, safer place".

New Park caters for children with serious behavioural, emotional and social difficulties with each pupil having specific special educational needs.

Wolverhampton City Council's latest inspection followed an assessment in February - which took place prior to Ofsted coming in.

The authority monitored teaching and learning in lessons and found that 28% of lessons were judged to be outstanding, compared with just 9% in February. No lessons were judged to be inadequate, which is in stark contrast to 27% in February.

5 pupils have also achieved impressive SATs results, securing level 5 results across the board.

Attendance is also improving month by month with new systems in place to monitor and review performance. The current level is at 88% which is almost 10% higher than in February.

The school will also be allowed to take in new Year Six pupils from September.

A number of pupils who were on long term exclusion have been successfully reintegrated into the school. Behaviour has also improved significantly due to a range of measures being implemented such as good behaviour reward systems.

Keith Ireland, Chair of the Interim Executive Board, said: "We took swift and decisive action and are working closely with the new leadership team to help bring about the necessary changes."

Francis Hedges, interim headteacher at New Park, said: "Turning New Park around was and remains a challenge but everyone is pulling together in the right direction to bring about the changes needed.

"Staff are dedicated and committed to ensuring that we deliver the best possible education for young people who come to us with very difficult personal circumstances.

"We have worked closely with the local authority, which has supported us all the way. This report, alongside Ofsted's latest report, shows that everyone's hard work is starting to bear fruit."

Councillor Phil Page, Wolverhampton City Council's Cabinet Member for Schools, Skills and Learning, said: "We are really pleased with the progress that is being made in such a short space of time.

"There is still a lot of work to do but I want to thank everyone involved for their efforts in helping New Park get this far.

"Our young people deserve nothing less than a high quality education and we will be continuing to work hard over the coming weeks and months as we seek to improve standards at New Park School."

  • released: Friday 25 July, 2014