AN Islamic private girls school in Pendle has been given the lowest-possible rating from Ofsted.

Ghausia Girl’s High School in Nelson was inspected by the education watchdog last month for the first time.

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The Cross Street school, which has been open since 1996, was criticised for its leadership, teaching, the personal development, behaviour and welfare of the pupils and their outcomes.

Joint headteacher Shabana Raiz and chair of governors Ameer Saeed declined to comment on the report.

Ofsted Inspector Drew Crawshaw said: “Pupils’ outcomes are inadequate. Leaders’ and teachers’ expectations of what pupils are able to achieve are low.

“Too few pupils reach the highest standards by the end of key stage four.

“The leaders’ view of the school is not accurate. Their evaluation of the impact of their work is not linked precisely to pupils’ outcomes.

“Improvement planning is inadequate because it lacks detail and does not identify how success will be measured.

“Governors do not hold leaders and teachers to accoun about pupils’ progress.

“Teachers do not plan for lessons effectively. They do not use their understanding of pupils’ previous learning to set tasks or targets which challenge all pupils adequately.

“The teaching of English and mathematics is weak. This has resulted in too few pupils attaining the highest grades.

“Pupils are not being prepared well enough for a life in modern Britain because they do not achieve qualifications to enable them to fulfil their potential.

“Pupils do not develop their reading and writing skills sufficiently well as they progress through the school.”

The school was however praised for the leaders being “successful” in promoting fundamental British values, the pupils’ behaviour and the “strong” relationships between the pupils and teachers.

Pupils were also praised for having a good understanding of how to keep themselves safe and parents were said to be “overwhelmingly supportive” of the school.

The school was last reviewed by the Bridge Schools Inspectorate in 2012 and was praised for ‘greatly improving’ from when it was last visited in 2009.”