NORTH Yorkshire County Council has responded to the announcement that Northallerton School has been placed in special measures.

“We accept Ofsted’s judgement and acknowledge that the school has been through a turbulent time,” said County Councillor Patrick Mulligan, North Yorkshire’s Executive Member for Schools.

“But we had already begun the recovery when Ofsted came in and inspectors recognised this fact.

“The vast majority of our students in North Yorkshire enjoy top quality teaching and learning and the welfare and safeguarding of children and young people are our top priorities. We are therefore fully focused on the most rapid improvement at Northallerton College to secure the high standards that all students deserve.”

“We have lost no time in putting in place a plan to make the school a place where all children feel safe to learn and to make all teaching much stronger”, said Keith Prytherch, interim headteacher and also currently principal of Caedmon College, Whitby, who has a strong reputation in the county for school improvement.

“As a new team we have brought in a new behaviour and consequences system and created consistency in classrooms; we have strengthened safeguarding and the routines of the school; we are cracking down on bullying and poor behaviour. Already our school is calmer, lessons more engaging and students more focused on their learning.”

The council statement said that the Government has directed that every school in special measures must become an academy.

The county council has 'therefore been working with the Regional Schools Commissioner in charge of academies to seek a potential strong local sponsor for Northallerton'.

“We fully recognise the weaknesses of the school highlighted in the Ofsted report”, said Paul Bartlett, Northallerton’s interim chairman and a trustee of The Arete Learning Trust which has been invited by the county council to assist in the school improvement process. “We also recognise that this is a school with great potential and already, as we embark on this rapid improvement plan, as we revitalise the governance and hold leadership to account, we can see changes for the better and we are optimistic about a bright future.”