A HIGH school has been criticised in a watchdog's report with pupils deemed to have been 'underachieving for too long'.

Ofsted inspectors found that staff at Darwen Vale High School were unclear as to what they were teaching some age groups and not enough thought was going into pupil learning.

The inspection, carried out in March, found the school, which is a member of the Aldridge Community Academy group, was underachieving in all areas – with quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership and management all needing improvement.

However bosses at the school said big strides have been made over the last year, with good GCSE results in English and maths being achieved in 2019, and parents were happy.

Overall the school was rated as ‘requires improvement’ – the same rating it received at its previous inspection in November 2017.

The report said: “Pupils have underachieved at Darwen Vale High School for too long. Although there are signs that pupils’ attainment is improving, leaders have been slow to address the issues that have held pupils back. The attainment of Year 11 pupils in 2019 remained weak in too many subjects.

"Teachers are not doing enough to address the wide gaps in pupils’ knowledge across subjects, particularly in key stage four. As a result, older pupils do not learn new content as well as they should. Their ability to recall previously learned content is very mixed, as is the quality of their work.

“Over time, leaders have not been ambitious enough for pupils, particularly those who are disadvantaged. This means that some staff have lower expectations of disadvantaged pupils.

“The low proportion of disadvantaged pupils entered for an academic curriculum reflects this lack of ambition. Added to this, a minority of pupils are withdrawn from studying a modern foreign language to support their literacy development.”

The report also touched on concerns that some pupils do not attend school regularly enough, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds or those with special educational needs (SEND).

The report continued: “Pupils with SEND do not achieve as well as they should.

“They are in the process of introducing a new personal development curriculum which is delivered during form time. However, evidence from the inspection showed that some pupils do not take these sessions seriously.

“There are clear signs that leaders, governors and trustees have begun to address some of the issues that have prevented pupils from learning better.”

Inspectors praised the planning and delivery of English and maths at key stage four level leading to an improvement of the year 11 group in 2019 – with the year group recording unprecedented grades in last year’s GCSEs.

The report added: “Younger pupils are also now learning better than before in some subjects, especially English and mathematics. This is particularly the case for Years 7 and 8. Leaders are in the process of redesigning the curriculum across key stage 3.

“However, there remains much work to do to ensure that the quality of the curriculum enables pupils to know and remember more.”

In response to the report, headteacher Matthew Little said he would take on board the feedback.

He said: “We are determined to deliver the highest standard of education for all of our students, and the inspection report clearly lays out the areas that we know we need to improve in to achieve this.

“In last year’s GCSE exam results both our English and maths GCSE results were above the national all schools average.

"Every Vale student’s performance increased on average by almost half a grade in each subject compared to 2017-2018 results, and we have seen that progress continue in the mock exams taken this year before lockdown.

“Over the last few weeks the progress we are making in all aspects of school life, not just in academic results but also in the care and support our students enjoy, has really been shown in the reaction our students, staff and parents to continuing learning during the lockdown.

“We acted quickly to put in place online learning and fun activities, backed up by support calls from our teachers and providing IT equipment to those families who needed it.

“The praise we’ve received from parents has been overwhelming.”

Among the messages from parents, one stated: “It’s crystal clear that the children are at the centre of all you do. We couldn’t have asked for more for our daughter. You’ve guided, encouraged and supported every step of the way which in turn has developed her confidence, Thank you.”

Mr Little added: “Since the inspector’s visit we have received the confirmation of the numbers of children applying to join us next year.

“These are our highest ever. In fact, we’ve agreed to take an additional 10 children above our pupil admission number because of the high demand for places at Vale.”