AN ANDOVER school has been praised for its hard work to improve standards, but the education watchdog has ruled that more action is needed.

John Hanson Community School was rated as ‘requires improvement’ in 2016 and in a recent visit Ofsted inspectors judged that concerns remain.

In a visit in March, inspector Matthew Newberry said staff were taking “effective action” to tackle problems including the “quality of teaching and the effectiveness of assessment across the school”.

But Mr Newberry said while the actions of some staff are improving the school others including governors are still not clear on “how to check the effectiveness of their actions on pupils’ outcomes”.

He added: “More work needs to be done to ensure that clear and measurable milestones are included to measure the progress made towards achieving each of the key targets.”

In response to the Mr Newberry’s comment, headteacher Russell Stevens said: “This is reflective of inexperience rather than effectiveness and is being addressed through professional development and training.”

The school was praised for its new assessments, with “promising signs of improvements” but due to “staff turbulence” it was too soon to see the impact of this.

Since the last inspection, 18 teachers have left and 10 have been appointed, but those who have left have done so for a variety of reasons including moving on to management posts and retirement, with only a small proportion leaving the profession.

Speaking about Mr Stevens’ appointment, the report said: “You have restructured your senior and subject leadership teams with a clear focus on making the necessary improvements identified during the last inspection.”

It was noted that due to this middle leaders feel “energised and enthused” but Mr Newberry said that whilst improvements had been made in English, he deemed teachers in maths and across the wider curriculum needed to set higher expectations.

Mr Newberry also commended the school for the work it has done with Hampshire County Council and with Hamble School, in Southampton.

However, Mr Newberry added more work needed to be done by teachers to change their teaching to meet the needs of disadvantaged pupils.

Mr Stevens said this is a key focus for the school and will use many of the “excellent practices” used for students with special educational needs, that are also relevant to disadvantaged pupils to make sure they have the opportunity to make “excellent progress”.

Mr Stevens added: “The dedication and hard work of all the staff and governors, along with high standards and a positive attitude to learning from students, makes John Hanson a great place to learn for children in Andover and the surrounding area.”