A NEW £10m school in Basingstoke that only opened last year has been told it ‘requires improvement’ by Ofsted.

The Austen Academy, in Shakespeare Road, Popley was built especially for young people with autism and opened in April 2021.

Read more: Inside the new £10m school for children with autism

It has now been graded as ‘requires improvement’ by Ofsted following its first inspection.

The school is run by Catch-22 Multi-Academy Trust which is handing over all of its seven schools to another provider following a string of poor Ofsted reports.

This includes two other Basingstoke schools – Coppice Spring Academy and The Ashwood Academy.

Catch-22 won a bid to run Austen Academy, despite already having several failing schools at the time in other parts of the country with Ofsted ratings of either ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’.

The school was directly funded by the Department for Education, with places assessed and commissioned by Hampshire County Council.

See also: Catch-22 handing over three Basingstoke schools following decline

Ofsted graded the school as ‘requires improvement’ for both the quality of education and leadership.

Behaviour and personal development were both graded as ‘good’.

The report, published on November 28 following a two-day inspection in September, said: “The headteacher, together with an enthusiastic local governing body, have created a clear vision to provide a high-quality education for pupils. However, this vision has not been realised.”

Inspectors found that some lessons are “not consistently well planned”.

The report said that many staff are new to the school because of a rapid increase in pupil numbers to 91 on roll at the time of the inspection.

Read also: Basingstoke secondary school in 'serious decline' with behaviour 'beyond control' 

It added: “This has meant that, until recently, there has been a lack of expertise to develop the curriculum, particularly in the secondary phase.”

Inspectors found that “staff work tirelessly to make pupils’ first days and weeks highly positive. As a result, pupils develop positive, respectful relationships with others, and they settle in quickly.”

They found that staff resolve bullying and unkind behaviour swiftly.

One parent told inspectors that the school has been ‘life changing’ for their child, which Ofsted said echoed the views of other parents.

Inspectors found that staff use autism-friendly strategies across the school, including therapy, sensory and breakout rooms to manage pupils’ emotions and feelings.

See more: New headteacher hoping to 'transform' failing Basingstoke secondary school

The report said that staff have “high expectations for pupils’ behaviour” with a reward system encouraging pupils to “do the right thing and take responsibility for their actions”.

It added: “Consequently, they behave well, moving around the school calmly and sensibly, listening to staff instructions. Breaktimes and lunchtimes are equally calm and provide ample opportunities for pupils to socialise with their friends.”

Safeguarding was found to be effective.

A statement from Austen Academy, which is led by headteacher Liz Cooper, said: “The Austen Academy is a new school which opened its doors in April 2021, at which time the Covid-19 pandemic and teacher recruitment crisis posed significant challenge, as they still do today.

“Further to this, at the time of inspection, our staff teams and student cohorts had significantly grown, particularly in the secondary department.

“We are pleased, despite these challenges, to have been graded ‘good’ in two of the four inspection areas. Ofsted praised our approach to safeguarding, behaviour management and personal development, noting that ‘staff are well trained and use their knowledge and experience to swiftly identify concerns about pupils’ and ‘staff encourage pupils to think ahead and consider their futures.’

“We are taking on board the feedback issued by Ofsted and are using it to catalyse our ambitious improvement journey towards becoming an ‘outstanding’ school.

“We have already begun work on reforming our curriculum delivery, a priority which was acknowledged by Ofsted as being ‘rightly addressed.’

“We will continue to work with Catch-22 and our new provider, once identified, to drive forward our improvement plan and deliver our students with the best possible education and specialist support.”

The policy of the Department for Education (DfE) is that all new schools must be academies.

A spokesperson for HCC said: "When a new school is built, the DfE takes the decision about which academy trust should run the school. The oversight of all academies lies with the DfE and therefore we would not wish to comment on this matter."

The Department for Education has been asked for a comment.