CORSHAM School has welcomed the findings of a monitoring inspection carried out by Ofsted last month which said the academy is making sufficient progress in helping improve the attainment levels of disadvantaged pupils.

The inspection was carried out due to concerns from Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector about the achievement of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

But in the report, published at the end of last month, it found that the school was well placed to give pupils “an effective transition from primary school to allow staff to spot early indications of students’ specific needs”.

Inspector Sue Frater said: “The headteacher, the governors, the senior leaders and staff demonstrate a strong commitment to raising the achievement of disadvantaged students.

“This is evident in the effective intervention and teaching strategies that are being implemented. The strategies are informed by rigorous monitoring of the students’ academic progress, behaviour and attendance.”

The school, which became an academy in 2011, has since introduced additional English lessons taught by a subject specialist for low-achieving pupils in Year 7 and 8 to help them progress to the same stage as their peers.

This, in conjunction with a summer school, provided jointly by the school and Wiltshire Council’s Family Learning team, was found to support both the transition of pupils and families from primary to secondary school.

The academy is also involved in a pupil premium project provided by Ofsted and Wiltshire Council which has raised the status of disadvantaged students in the school with them first to receive academic mentoring by year group tutors.

However, the report did find that in order to continue its support of disadvantaged pupils, “teachers’ expectations must be raised over what students can achieve through regularly reviewing and setting more aspirational progress targets.”

Jason Wood, assistant headteacher with responsibility for pupil premium funding, said: “We are very pleased with the subsequent report that has been written. The strong commitment of everybody at the school towards the achievement of disadvantaged students has been recognised along with the school’s effective transition arrangements, mentoring and monitoring of academic progress, attendance and behaviour as well as the effective support of literacy skills at Key Stage 3.”