A SECONDARY school rated outstanding by Ofsted just three years ago has been put into special measures after GCSE results slipped for three years in a row.

Wood Green School in Witney was inspected last month and judged to be inadequate in three areas – achievement, teaching and leadership.

It is a massive drop for the school, which caters for 1,100 students, which three years ago was praised as “impressive”.

The school’s GCSE results have plum-meted from 62 per cent achieving five A*-C grades, including English and maths, three years ago, to 52 per cent this summer.

Inspectors from Ofsted said in a new report after their latest visit that “in English and mathematics, students make less progress than other students nationally.”

The report said that in maths, progress for more able students has declined and for lower attaining students and those on the pupil premium – students from hard-up families – it had declined significantly.

But headteacher Rob Shadbolt said he was confident it would improve. Mr Shadbolt, who took over from Cynthia Savage when she retired in April, said that since he started, work has already been taking place to address the decreasing results.

He said: “My predecessor was coming to the end of her career and it is not unusual when there is a handover that the outgoing head doesn’t implement a lot of change, to allow the new headteacher the freedom to do that.”

Speaking about teaching, Ofsted inspectors said: “In too many lessons, all students are set the same work. This means that less able students sometimes struggle and the more able do not have work which stretches them.”

Ofsted rated the behaviour of pupils as “good”, saying: “The school fosters good relationships and has very good strategies for encouraging positive behaviour and respectful relationships”.

Chairman of governors Rob Walton said: “Obviously, we are very concerned about the outcome of the inspection and we are strongly committed to ensuring that the young people of Witney receive the very best education.”