CARLTON Community College is still deemed 'inadequate' by Ofsted - despite a fifth visit from inspectors in two years.

Inspectors visited the school, on Royston Lane, Carlton, in November and observed 29 lessons taught by 29 teachers, scrutinised documents and met with senior leaders, staff and pupils.

The school was put into special measures in January 2012 - Ofsted's worst category of failing school - but progress since then, and the last monitoring inspection in May, is still inadequate.

A report on the latest inspection said a higher number of students left year 11 with five A* to C grades at GCSE, including English and maths, but found this was still too low and the school failed to achieve the government's minimum expectations for the attainment and progress of students at the end of year 11.

The proportion of students making progress as they should between years seven and 11 in English and maths is also 'far too low'.

The quality of teaching was found to be 'highly variable'.

Inspectors added: "There are still too many lessons in which students make inadequate progress, and too few where their progress is good or better."

It said pupils work well together but often activities and resources in lessons are dull, the pace is too slow and expectations are too low.

It said pupils were not given enough opportunity to work alone, and had become too dependent on teachers to tell them what to do next.

Poor behaviour in lessons was found to be a direct result of poor teaching and some teachers did not have a high enough expectation of what pupils are capable of.

Principal Sharon Bell said: "We were visited recently by Ofsted, when Carlton’s progress was judged to be inadequate.

"However, Ofsted noted that new systems, procedures and plans are in place and approved these.

"We're now beginning to see the impact of our changes so that teaching and student progress are improving at a faster rate.

"Our students are commended in the report and we're all working together with a notable community spirit and drive to ensure Ofsted see the success of our hard team work in their next visit."