THE headteacher of Longfield Academy has expressed her disappointment over an Ofsted report which says the school needs to improve.

Inspectors visited the academy in November and although the behaviour and safety of pupils was rated ‘good’, the report says the school needs to improve the quality of its teaching, its leadership and management and its pupils’ attainment.

Criticisms from inspectors included some teachers not regularly marking pupils’ work, inconsistency in the amount of homework being set and students not making the progress they should – particularly in English and maths.

The report said that students needed to be given more time in lessons to develop their own ideas and that assessment information should be better used to plan lessons.

Headteacher Susan Johnson said the school was “very disappointed” with the report but that she felt it was not an accurate overall reflection of Longfield.

She said: “The school fully recognises that there are particular areas where achievement needs to increase further and significant actions are already in place to ensure pupils meet their target grades.

“Please note that when the school was last inspected in 2009 - and judged to be good with many outstanding features - the five A* to C including English and maths measure was 18 per cent lower than it currently is.

“Parents and carers will be reassured to know that both English and maths departments are now fully staffed with specialist teachers, and results already achieved by our current pupils in Year 11 indicate excellent results for the 2014 cohort.

“Every member of staff at Longfield is absolutely determined to ensure achievement is raised further and we are already addressing all of the areas for improvement to ensure we improve consistency across the school.”

Mrs Johnson added that it was very disappointing that historical data contributed significantly to the overall judgement of the report.

Longfield did score well in the behaviour and safety of its pupils, with inspectors praising the school’s anti-bullying policies and commenting on the positive relationships between pupils and teachers.

Inspectors also noted that the school’s range of extra-curricular activities were highly valued by the pupils.