LEADERS and managers are now taking effective action towards the removal of special measures and many aspects of the crisis-hit West Somerset College are beginning to improve, Ofsted inspectors said this week.

But despite overall improvements, boys’ achievements in English and progress in science and modern foreign languages is too low, the marking of students’ work is “widely inconsistent” and “too much teaching is still not good enough”.

The inspectors also found that “the progress pupils make in lessons is widely variable and not good enough in too many”. There were signs of better progress in some subjects: “But teachers’ expectations of pupils are often too low and teaching is not matched well to pupils’ current levels of achievement.”

The Ofsted report, by HM Inspector James Sage, follows the third inspection since the college became subject to special measures in October 2014.

They were imposed after it was found that the college needed to raise academic achievement, eradicate inadequate teaching and poor student behaviour, improve attendance records and the quality of leadership and management and ensure that governors were held leaders to account for the performance of the college.

The college will become part of Bridgwater College Trust in January and will change from a converter academy to a sponsored academy with a new governing body.

Full report in the Free Press.