The head of a Bradford secondary school put into special measures said today an improvement action plan had already begun.

Government inspectors said Wyke Manor was failing to give students an adequate education and pupils' behaviour was "unsatisfactory overall and frequently over-boisterous".

The school will now be closely monitored by Education Bradford's School Improvement Project Board.

Ofsted inspected the school in April and then said: "Unsatisfactory or poor attitudes were observed in just over a third of the lessons."

Inspectors found that in these cases students disregarded instructions, refused to listen, were distracted and disrupted others. They could not work independently or collaboratively. Staff leading these lessons were judged unsatisfactory or poor.

Inspectors said: "Dull teaching failed to capture interest or enthusiasm; the provision was not matched to the pupils' differing needs; the management of challenging behaviour was weak; there were significant gaps in the teachers' subject knowledge and the pace was pedestrian and often controlled by the pupils, which led to underachievement by groups within the class."

Head teacher Alan Oswin, whose hard work and efforts in leading the senior management team were praised, said an action plan was already drawn up.

Areas needing improvement are leadership, teaching and learning, pupils' attitudes to learning and behaviour and transition.

The school will take on eight teachers, including four from Australia, to fill vacancies and help improve stability.

Mr Oswin said: "We are working very hard to bring about further and sustainable improvements which will put the school on the right track."

In January, the school was in the bottom 200 for A-Level results. Of 78 sixth-formers, only 18 were entered and received an average score of 115 points in 2003. About a third of Year 11 pupils left school last year without a grade in any of the three core subjects.

l Education Bradford has revealed the number of schools in special categories has fallen by ten to 19 since last summer. A spokesman said: "In Bradford, schools are supported to come out of special measures. Figures show this is happening."

Education Bradford managing director Mark Pattison said those recently out of special measures could not be identified until the reports arrived.

"We are delighted with this result as it is the trend we expected," he said.

He said more schools were expected to move out of special measures or serious weaknesses within the next few weeks.