A BRADFORD secondary school in special measures has been told it is working effectively to improve standards.

Among the recent improvements at Grange Technology College listed by Ofsted are the increased efforts being made to help the progress of the 200 pupils in the school who are new to speaking English.

Grange was put into special measures after a highly critical Ofsted report last summer, and it has been visited by inspectors three times since, with their most recent follow-up report, by inspector Susan Hayter, being released today.

It says the school is taking “effective action towards the removal of special measures” and described head teacher Alison Mander as being “unrelenting” in her efforts to turn the school’s fortunes around.

Although the report says there is still plenty to be done before the school is where it needs to be, it highlights a number of areas where things have improved in the past year.

These include a staff re-structuring and efforts to improve the performance of the large numbers of pupils in the school who speak English as a second language, or arrive at the school speaking very little English.

It says: “More than 200 pupils are new to speaking English. Over the last six months, leaders have developed a more incisive approach to checking the provision for this group, including using an external consultant.” However, it says more needs to be done to help these students.

Another way the school has improved is in its efforts to improve attendance, especially of pupils from the Roma community. It says it has increased by two per cent recently, adding: “This follows the introduction of a member of staff dedicated to working with the local Roma community to improve their understanding of the benefits of good school attendance.”

The school is currently working towards becoming an academy trust in partnership with Guiseley School.

Miss Mander said: “We’re bringing staff in in key posts. We now have our own social worker, a school counsellor and an educational psychologist.

“Our staff member’s work with the Roma community is starting to show green shoots when it comes to attendance.

“Overall we are in a much, much stronger place than we were last year in terms of staffing and quality of teaching and learning.”

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