INSPECTORS say Bradford's biggest secondary school is showing strong signs of improvement, only a few months after it was placed in special measures.

Grange Technology College was given an inadequate rating by schools watchdog Ofsted in June, which cited poor pupil performance by pupils.

Shortly afterwards Dominic Wall, head of the Southfield Grange Trust which runs it, vowed to turn the 1,800 pupil school around, and Alison Mander, deputy head teacher at Guiseley School, was brought in to replace Grange's head Nicholas Bell, who resigned after the report.

Guiseley's head teacher Paul Morrissey was brought in as executive head, with Miss Mander becoming acting head, in the school five days a week.

Ofsted inspector Susan Hayter visited last month to see how work to improve standards was progressing, and she has now approved the school's improvement plan

In a letter to the school she says: "Academy trustees have shown a determined response to the inspection findings.

"Leaders quickly accepted their failure to ensure that good outcomes for pupils and, as a result, recognised that the arrangements for governance had to change and change quickly.

"From the start of this term, the new acting head teacher has ramped up the pace of change. Work with senior and middle leaders is beginning to bear fruit. There is a growing understanding that leaders must make a clearly defined and positive impact on the progress pupils make, their behaviour, well-being and their attendance.

"Overall, staff, including teachers, understand that previous ways of working failed pupils.

"Some teachers’ response to the inspection and changes in GCSE course requirements has been quite breathtaking in the positive impact it has had on pupils.

"Pupils say that teaching is improving, that teachers expect more of them and that there is more support if they need extra help."

However, not everything the inspectors found was positive. Mrs Hayter said: "Those staff who felt the inspection judgment was overly harsh cannot ignore the exceptionally poor results achieved by the pupils who finished Year 11 in July.

"Sadly, some staff are still resisting necessary change, which is creating unhelpful turbulence and is a concern for pupils."

Miss Mander said: "The key element in this visit was the focus on leadership and management. We made very clear we were taking effective action and we are ramping up the pace.

"Everything comes on the back of strong leadership and management. Once you have that everything else will fall into place.

"People have been telling us the school feels different, and that they can see the difference in the classroom and that the quality of behaviour has improved already.

"We are bringing dramatic changes in for pupils who needed change some time ago."

She said she had to draw up a two year plan to complete the change in the school's fortunes.

On the issue of teachers resisting change, she said: "I met with staff and said that if anyone thinks this describes them, then when they come back in January they should be different and better."

She said that while parents she had met had raised concerns over the use of supply teachers in the school, from January the school will be fully staffed with teachers on long term contracts.

Every fortnight the school sends a letter to parents to inform them how many supply teachers their children will have been taught by that month.

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