Academy improves in special measures

Sheffield Park Academy was judged to be failing last year and its sponsor, the United Learning Trust charity, was ordered to develop an urgent action plan by former schools secretary Ed Balls.

Now its latest Ofsted inspection has found overall improvement has been satisfactory.

But inspectors said strategies which had been developed to improve pupils' basic skills were not being used enough in lessons and opportunities were missed to stretch student's writing, speaking and presentation.

The academy's work to increase pupils' rate of progress and overall standards is still judged to be inadequate as is the support it provides to help special needs pupils' personal development and academic improvement.

The report said behaviour was satisfactory and a high staff presence on corridors meant incidents were dealt with quickly.

Overall attendance levels at Sheffield Park have improved slightly but remained low and too many youngsters arrived late for morning lessons, according to Ofsted.