“EFFECTIVE action” has been taken to tackle problems at a secondary school which was told to improve by Ofsted.

Inspectors from the education watchdog carried out a monitoring visit at The Hurst Community College, in September, after it was graded as “requires improvement” in May.

Her Majesty’s inspector, Janet Pearce, wrote to Malcolm Christian, headteacher, outlining her findings from the visit.

The letter said: “School leaders have taken swift and effective action to improve the systems they use to monitor teaching.

“Senior leaders’ roles and responsibilities have been restructured to focus more precisely on the areas for improvement identified in the inspection.”

She added: “Senior leaders have established a better approach to checking teaching and students’ achievement.

“Students’ progress is now measured more precisely and frequently during the year, so that any underachievement can be tackled quickly and gaps closed.”

The inspector reported that a “thorough and comprehensive programme of monitoring” has been introduced at the school, in Brimpton Road, Baughurst, which includes unannounced visits to lessons and formal observations of teaching.

She added that this year’s GCSE exam results showed “an encouraging improvement”, and said that leaders recognise that students eligible for the pupil premium have not made enough progress, resulting in the gap between their achievement and others in the school being too wide.

However, the letter said the programme of extra help for those students at risk of underachievement has been strengthened.

The inspector said: “Students said that they are ‘learning much faster and learning more’ this year.”

She added that Ofsted may carry out further visits and, where necessary, will provide further support and challenge to the school until its next full inspection.

Mr Christian said: “I am very pleased that the HMI monitoring visit rightly recognised the rapid rate of progress made with the Ofsted action points made in May.

“Indeed, the GCSE results this summer showed that significant improvements had already been made in mathematics – our best-ever results with nearly 80 per cent of pupils attaining A* - C grades in maths.

“I am very proud of the efforts and focus put in place by our staff to help achieve such a positive monitoring report.”