DANESFIELD School in Williton is the latest West Somerset education establishment to be told it needs to improve by Ofsted in recent weeks.

Earlier this month Minehead First School was put into special measures following an Ofsted inspection, and while the findings in the Danesfield report are not as damning, Ofsted has said there is still a lot of areas that could be improved.

Danesfield, part of the West Somerset Academies Trust, was told it requires improvement in terms of leadership, quality of teaching, and outcomes for pupils but was praised for pupils’ personal development, behaviour and welfare.

The Ofsted report states that there is ‘too much inconsistency in the quality of teaching’,’sometimes teachers do not have high enough expectations of their pupils’, and that there are ‘significant differences in what is expected of the same pupil in different subjects’.

However it also highlighted that ‘leaders and governors are rightly proud of their caring ethos’, that efforts to improve attendance had been successful, and pupils were polite and friendly.

Danesfield headteacher Daniel Hartley said: "While the report came out as Requires Improvement, Ofsted recognised a number of improvements that have been made since 2017.

“There were lots of areas identified by the inspectors that we can celebrate.

“The children ‘behaved well around the school’ and as result of leaders’ efforts there was ‘little disruption in lessons’.

“It was also recognised that leaders had ensured disadvantaged pupils got the relevant support they needed to help them ‘succeed’ and ‘thrive’.

“As with all Ofsted visits they also highlight the areas we need to improve upon and we are already planning and taking steps to improve these areas.

“One area the inspectors identified as in need of development was around building capacity in middle leaders so they can monitor teaching and learning more robustly.

“Furthermore, standards of literacy across the whole curriculum was not ‘consistently good’ and teacher’s expectations in some subjects were not as ‘consistently high’ as others.”

"In the two terms I have been at Danesfield I have been impressed with the commitment of the staff, parents, governors and children to the ethos of the school.

“I am excited about the future, and look forward to leading this unique middle school into the next phase of its history.”