LEADERS of Teesdale School have expressed shock after inspectors found it required improvement.

Ofsted visited the school, which has more than 600 pupils, on January 27 and 28 and gave it the second worst possible rating of Grade 3.

The school has called an information meeting for concerned parents, to respond to the report which found the school’s performance had not been good and was weak in some subjects, especially maths.

Inspectors graded the leadership and management, the quality of teaching and the achievement of pupils as requiring improvement, while the behaviour and safety of the pupils and the sixth-form provision were assessed as good.

The leadership team said pupils' results were better than during the last inspection in 2010, when the school was graded as “good with outstanding achievement”.

In a letter sent out to parents the team explained how it thought the “anomalies” were down to the fact that the “framework for school inspections has changed completely from that used in 2010” in that it uses a “reductionist approach”, which means that if one group of students in either English or maths has underperformed recently, then achievement cannot be graded good.

The school has also defended its ability to teach maths, saying teachers have a strong knowledge of the subject, set challenging tasks and mark rigorously with feedback.

A school spokesman added: “Let us be plain here: we believe passionately that Teesdale is not only a good school, but significantly better than it was in 2010.”

The school’s information evening will be held at 6pm, on Thursday, February 26.