DIDCOT Girls’ School has been told to crack down on a core of troublesome pupils.

An Ofsted report highlighted “the disruptive behaviour” of some pupils less than two months after the headteacher, Paula Taylor-Moore, said some had lost their personal dignity.

Last month’s inspection graded the school satisfactory — a grade lower than the previous inspection in 2006, when it was rated good with outstanding features.

Mrs Taylor-Moore said she believed there were about 25 girls causing trouble. The report said that while most pupils behaved well, a small number of parents who wrote to inspectors expressed serious concerns about students’ behaviour and school discipline.

Inspector Meena Wood said: “The school has underestimated the impact of the disruptive behaviour of these students.”

Mrs Taylor-Moore said inspectors had relied on correspondence from parents who had received information second hand from pupils and had not seen any hard evidence that behaviour in the school was poor.

She said: “There is a problem with about 25 pupils who continue to chat during lessons, do not do what they are told to by teachers, and arrive late for lessons — anything to get out of doing some work — and we are dealing with them.

“We have implemented a zero tolerance non-school uniform policy.

“Students wearing the wrong uniform will be sent home.

“We are tightening up the rules and are introducing a praise programme for those students who work really hard who don’t get the recognition they deserve.”

The report said the school, which has 1,296 pupils and 195 sixth formers, had worked hard to put in place a good curriculum that was more focused on students’ needs and abilities.

It found the sixth form, established in partnership with St Birinus School, to be good.

But it said the school needed to: l Tackle its behaviour problem l Accelerate progress in maths lessons, so students reach higher standards l Develop the leadership and management skills of subject leaders.

Mrs Taylor-Moore said: “We recognise the concerns raised and will spend the coming months addressing these issues thoroughly.”

In a recent school newsletter, the headteacher wrote: “These are the young women who are wearing skirts which are embarrassingly short, who are wearing enough make-up to glow in a nightclub, who find as many ways as possible to wear items of clothing which should not be there, who dye their hair colours which should remain in the bottle, and who use language around the school which should remain unspoken.”