OFSTED has praised a city secondary school for good teaching and improved results for GCSE students.
Inspectors visited King Richard School in Paulsgrove last month and said they noticed improvements among both staff and students.
The school has now gone from being rated satisfactory to good.
The report said that the quality of teaching is good in most subjects, particularly English, maths, science and the arts.
Students were seen to behave well both around the school and in lessons, and overall attendance had made a significant improvement.
Headteacher Adam Dare said: ‘I was very pleased.
‘I felt it reflected the school properly. The staff worked incredibly hard and always do work hard.
‘The students were very well behaved as they usually are. They supported the school and spoke to inspectors and were very positive about the school.’
The report noted that students make rapid progress from a low starting point when they join the school. Most exam results are now in line with the national average.
Mr Dare added: ‘That’s very important, we know that. It’s really clear that our pupils are making very good progress almost from the word go.
‘We make sure that they hit the ground running when they come to us and as they go through every year.
‘I’m very keen on small classes, but that’s not about making teachers’ lives easier, it’s about making sure that every pupil gets good feedback so they get more personal attention in class and they understand how to improve.’
The report said in order for the school to become outstanding, teachers need to have higher expectations of the students to work hard and feedback must be given to allow progress and improvement.
Mr Dare added: ‘We want to be outstanding. We obviously want more outstanding lessons so we work to see a situation where 90 per cent of our lessons are outstanding.
‘When I first came to this school a lot of people didn’t believe that our young people in Paulsgrove could achieve.
‘We mustn’t hold young people back for having low expectations. We must have the highest expectations for our kids. We need to exceed expected progress.’
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