DEVIZES school headteacher Phil Bevan is celebrating after Ofsted inspectors visited the school for the first time since he took over three years ago.

A report just published found both the school and sixth form were good which maintains the rating gained in 2015 but it is widely accepted that it is harder than ever to get a good classification.

Mr Bevan said: "We are incredibly proud of our school and delighted that this excellent Ofsted  report accurately represents what we see every day in school.

"We remain fiercely ambitious to go from  strength to strength, and we will continue to focus on improving teaching and learning, behaviour, student  outcomes, and the gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils.”

Inspector Steve Smith who carried out the short inspection wrote to Mr Bevan to say: "Since you took up post in April 2016, you have raised the expectations of staff and pupils.

"You are ably supported by other senior leaders, who share your ambition to improve outcomes for all pupils. Consequently, leaders have implemented successful strategies to improve behaviour and the quality of teaching.

"As part of this work, you have successfully tackled the areas for improvement identified at the time of the previous inspection.

"Pupils’ progress in mathematics is now in line with the national average and comparable with other subjects in the school. "The quality of teaching in the sixth form has also improved and is enabling students to make progress that is in line with the national average. Pupils in different subjects across the school are more consistently acting on advice from teachers to improve their work.

"The school is a welcoming, inclusive place where pupils learn to become tolerant, accepting young people. They are polite, articulate and personable."

But concerns were expressed about the number of children studying a foreign language. The report says: "Too few pupils choose to study a language in key stage 4, and the achievement of pupils who do study a language has been too low over time."

He was also worried about attendance overall which is below average. The report says: "The proportion of disadvantaged pupils who are persistently absent is too high. Fixed-term exclusions have risen because of leaders’ introduction of the ‘disruption-free learning’ system.

"The new system has raised expectations of pupils and led to a spike in exclusions. Leaders acknowledge that exclusions are too high but argue convincingly that they are necessary in the short term to improve behaviour."