A SECONDARY school which operates across two sites in County Durham has been rated as requiring improvement across the board.

Greenfield Community College, in Newton Aycliffe and Shildon, was visited by Ofsted inspectors in May.

They found the schools’ merger in 2015 had been “handled badly”, leading to a decline in standards of achievement in 2015 and 2016 in almost all year groups.

Teaching, learning and assessments were also found to vary across subjects and year groups while attendance, though rising, was below the national average.

The report identified strengths including improvements in teaching, the presence of a “skilfully-led” governing body which, together with the headteacher, is working effectively to improve the school.

Pupils were also found to be “safe and well cared for”.

Chair of governors, Dave Ford said: “All governors are committed to redoubling our efforts to support and challenge the leadership of the school in meeting the challenges that we face and ensuring continued rapid progress in providing the best education possible for all our young people.”

He added: “I’m somewhat disappointed they were unable to consider outcomes for our two populations separately as well as the official combined figures as this would have better demonstrated the progress we have made.

The school will be re-inspected in 2019.