A HIGH school has been the lowest rating of 'inadequate' by inspectors.

Ofsted found West Craven High School in Barnoldswick was well below par for quality of education, behaviour and attitudes and leadership and management while the personal development ‘required improvement'.

However, a new principal, who was appointed in November, the same month as the inspection, has vowed to turn around the fortunes of the Kelbrook Road academy run by Pendle Education Trust.

Tracy Foy said she was looking to drive up standards and ensure a rise to ‘good’ status.

School bosses say that they have taken immediate steps to improve by appointing two new deputy principals in the past two weeks.

Inspectors will come back to the academy on five monitoring visits over the next two years to check if the improvements are being made.

Mrs Foy said: “We are incredibly disappointed with the Grade 4 given by Ofsted but it matched our assessment prior to the visit.

"We do not intend to make excuses for the school being in this position and have invited any of our parents and carers who have questions about the judgement to meet with our senior leadership team where we can share in more detail with them our plans for rapid improvement.

“We have worked with our Student Council to produce a clear vision for the academy: to be an exceptional school providing the highest quality education and preparation for the rest of students’ lives.”

In the inspectors' report it was noted pupils were ‘badly affected’ by staffing changes and ‘some pupils did not behave well’.

There were concerns about bullying and how ‘leaders are slow to deal with it and therefore pupils resort to managing it themselves’. Also ‘data shows that pupils do not make good progress.’

Anita Ghidotti, chief executive of Pendle Education Trust, added: “We are obviously taking this Oftsed judgement extremely seriously and are working with Tracy and the new team to change things around at pace.”

Principal of Nelson and Colne College Group, Amanda Melton, said: “We are very confident that the new senior leadership team led by Tracy Foy will turn around the disappointment of seeing an academy within Pendle Education Trust being rated as inadequate."