AN East Lancashire school has been placed in special measures after Ofsted chiefs raised concerns over safeguarding.

Ofsted branded Norden High School and Sports College in Rishton ‘inadequate’ after finding not all necessary checks on teachers had taken place and pupils were allowed to leave the school premises without signing in or out.

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Inspectors issued a scathing report stating the teaching at the Stourton Street school is “not good enough” and standards in maths and a range of subjects are too low. It was rated ‘inadequate’ in four out of five areas.

But headteacher Tim Mitchell hit back at the education watchdog in a letter sent to parents claiming the report contains “inaccuracies” and “contradicts previous external judgements that have recognised the journey of improvement the school is on”.

He said the comments in the report were “personal, subjective and unrepresentative” and accused inspectors of having a “lack of regard for their own advice by sending written communication that contains both grammatical and spelling errors”.

Following an inspection in May, inspectors raised concerns about inconsistent assessment, low attendance among disadvantaged pupils and the management of pupils’ behaviour.

Lead inspector Sally Kenyon said: “Leaders’ capacity to improve the school is impeded by an overgenerous self-evaluation which gives staff and governors an unrealistic picture of current standards.”

Ofsted also accused governors of not holding senior leaders to account stringently enough.

Inspectors said too much of the teaching is “dull, poorly planned and inappropriate for pupils’ abilities” and in too many lessons “teaching has no impact because of pupils’ weak behaviour”.

They said some teachers “do not conduct themselves in a professional manner.”

Mrs Kenyon said: “The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective. At lunchtime, procedures to know which pupils are on or off the premises are not good enough and supervision of pupils is inadequate.”

The school was rated ‘requires improvement’ when it was last inspected in 2014. Elaine Lockwood, chair of governors, said: “Whilst we are disappointed with the outcome, with the support of the local authority, we have already put actions in place to address the issues identified.

“We are determined to make improvements and some have already been made. We’ll make sure that this emphasis on making rapid progress continues.

“As the inspectors recognised, this is a small school which has been through a challenging period of transition, including the appointment of a deputy headteacher and new assistant headteacher.

“We are committed to improving leadership and management of the school even further.

“To achieve this, we’ll add more management roles to the structure where we feel they would help the school to make progress quickly.”

She said that inspectors found many things to praise about the school, including the teaching in English and range of extra-curricular activities available.