TWO Forest schools have been heavily criticised by inspectors from the education watchdog Ofsted.

Lakers School in Coleford has been placed in special measures because of the quality of teaching and management while St Anthony’s Free School in Cinderford – which was already in special measures – is not making progress.

Inspectors visited Lakers in December just before previous head Alison Elliott retired and they found very little good to say about it except in a handful of areas including how it nurtures pupils, careers advice and the work of teaching assistants.

Acting headteacher, John Reilly, who took over at the school at the beginning of January, said: “We are obviously disappointed by the Ofsted’s judgement.

“However we are absolutely committed to improving and providing the best education for our pupils.

“I want us all to work together and have every confidence that, with the support of governors, staff, the county council and our parents, we will rapidly make the required changes.

“Although I have only been here a short while, I have been impressed by the attitude of everyone at the school and am sure that we can work together to try and raise standards.

“We want to deliver the highest quality education to every one of our pupils so that they can achieve their best and we become a stronger school as a result.”

Inspectors reported that at the time of the visit management, teaching, learning, personal development and outcomes for pupils were all inadequate.

They said managers had been unable to stop the “rapid decline” in results over the last few years and had no clear explanation why they fell so short of their own expectations.

Senior managers’ assessment of the quality of teaching was “too generous, especially given the outcomes for pupils that are the result of this teaching.”

Leaders at all levels in the school were too quick to blame the “low aspirations” of the local community for the underachievement.

Lessons were often not challenging enough but where they were “pupils rise to the occasion.”

Inspectors found teachers’ “poor planning, low expectations and lack of meaningful feedback are frequently limiting pupils’ achievement.”

Some pupils reported they were frustrated that lessons were regularly disrupted by bad behaviour and from what they saw in classrooms and around the school inspectors concluded “too many pupils lack the self-discipline to be effective learners.”

Both schools have been told they may not appoint newly qualified teachers.

Following a routine monitoring visit to St Anthony’s, inspectors concluded the school is not taking effective action for special measures to be removed.

While pupils “have a real zest for life and articulate their views with clarity and purpose,” last year’s test results for Year Six pupils were significantly below the national average.

Inspectors said: “Given their strong starting points as eager and articulate young people, this further highlights the inadequate achievement noted at the time of the inspection (in May last year.)

“Progress over time is poor because they are not given enough challenge in lessons.”

Since September the school has received “high-quality support” from staff at Bishop Cleeve School in Cheltenham but St Anthony’s is “not in a strong enough position to work on improvement without relying on this external support.”

Parents have been informed of the report and the school will continue discussing the situation with Department for Education officials.

It is expected that a new school improvement partner will be appointed shortly to support the schoolteachers, leaders and governors in developing a post-inspection action plan.

Chair of governors Nick Hyde added “We are all very disappointed with the outcome of the Ofsted report but we accept the criticism and will work tirelessly with partners to address the weaknesses and deliver the best education to all children in our school.

“The response from the Department for Education has been extremely helpful and plans of support for the school will confirm in the next week.”