OUR Lady and St John Catholic College has made the first step towards being graded as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted according to the acting head teacher.

The North Road school, which was rated as inadequate in April last year, has been upgraded to ‘requires improvement’ following an inspection in June.

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Patrick Murden, who was brought in to help boost the school’s performance, said ‘phase one’ has been completed and that he expected it to achieve the top rating in two years.

The Ofsted report comes weeks after Blackburn with Darwen Council agreed to the closure of the school’s Sixth , with currently has six students.

Lead inspector Allan Torr said: “Students’ achievement requires improvement. A greater proportion is on course to attain five good GCSEs in the next two years.

“However, after they enter the school in Year Seven, the most able students make slow progress .

“The most able students at the end of Year Six, who are also disadvantaged, make slow progress.

“The quality of teaching in Years Seven to Nine has improved significantly, but it is not as effective as it is in Years 10 and 11.

“ Students do not know as much as they should about how to keep themselves safe from extremist behaviour.

“The school’s systems to protect students are effective. As a result they feel safe.

“The proportion of students who are absent from school is still too high and too many arrive late.

“Many middle leaders are new to the college and have not been able to have an impact on improving teaching in Years Seven to Nine.

“Some of the systems to check on the impact of teaching are not refined enough to raise standards for the most able and for the disadvantaged students.”

He also praised Mr Murden for ‘inspirational leadership’, the high-quality pastoral care and the school’s promotion and teaching of diversity.

Mr Murden said: “I’m absolutely delighted with this rating and convinced that we will be graded as ‘outstanding’ in two years time.

“A lot of hard work and clear leadership has gone into this as well as great teaching and the school recruiting more talented staff.

“This is not the end of our development and I’m looking forward to strong exam results in the summer.”