A BASINGSTOKE secondary school, which was the worst-performing in the borough in last year’s GCSE results, is set to “significantly” improve, according to an education watchdog.

The Vyne School was visited by Ofsted in January, and in their report, inspectors graded it as “requires improvement” overall.

However, headteacher Mark Kingswood said the judgement is a reflection of the “historical achievement levels” – and the Ofsted team rated The Vyne as “good” in all areas other than achievement.

Last year, just 34 per cent of pupils achieved five GCSEs between A* and C, including English and maths, which was six per cent below the Government benchmark, and a fall of 10 per cent on the school’s results in 2012.

However, Ofsted inspectors acknowledged: “Information provided by the school demonstrates that achievement is rising at a rapid rate for all groups of learners, and forecasts for 2014 and 2015 indicate that the school will achieve standards significantly above the Government’s floor targets in each of these years.”

The school has been through a turbulent few years after being put in special measures in 2010 and graded as “inadequate”.

The Vyne came out of special measures in April 2012.

The latest report said: “The quality of teaching is now good, and there are examples of outstanding teaching. This is largely due to the determination of school leaders to appoint highly capable teachers to replace the significant number who left the school since the last inspection.”

Inspectors added that pupil behaviour has “improved dramatically during recent years, and most notably since the appointment of the current headteacher.”

The report described Mr Kingswood as “a strong and resilient leader whose passion and commitment to the school are shared by staff, students and governors.”

Mr Kingswood said: “I am so proud of our school, and I was looking forward to our inspection. We felt sure that Ofsted would validate the transformation over the past 18 months, and so it has proved. This is a significant step on our journey to outstanding.”

He added: “I am also extremely pleased at the views expressed by parents, 97 per cent of whom said their child felt safe at the school and 93 per cent of whom said they would recommend it to another parent.

“Past issues are behind us and parents recognise us as a welcoming and open and honest school, where children respect each other and their teachers, and which takes both the teaching and pastoral care of its students very seriously.”

The Vyne Community School report for publication_WF14677425.pdf