WOOD Green School has been graded ‘good’ by government inspectors after spending 20 months in special measures.

Headteacher Rob Shadbolt said a huge cheer went up in assembly when the findings of the inspection carried out in June were announced to pupils last week.

He said: “It was just the most amazing moment. This big cheer just rippled across the hall, it really was a special moment.”

Mr Shadbolt paid tribute to his staff and pupils who he said had impressed him with their willingness to work together, which helped the school rise two places on the Ofsted grade scale, bypassing ‘requires improvement’.

He said: “I’m delighted that all the hard work we’ve put in has been recognised by Ofsted. I think it’s very important that Witney has two good secondary schools so every child has a chance of a good education.”

Wood Green first entered special measures in October, 2013, when Ofsted identified a series of failings including the achievements of pupils, leadership and management, and the quality of teaching.

Since then it has received four monitoring inspections which recognised improvements at the school but did not lift the ‘inadequate’ rating.

It was only after the latest inspection in June that inspectors pronounced the school ‘good’.

A school cannot jump to the highest grade of ‘outstanding’ immediately after being in special measures.

Mr Shadbolt said the school had to analyse everything it does in much greater detail to make sure it was following good practice.

He also sent staff out to outstanding schools, including Royal Wootton Bassett Academy, to look at ways to improve.

Mr Shadbolt said: “Every child was given aspirational challenge targets so they can see what they need to achieve to perform the same as students at other schools of the same ability.

“We started tracking them very closely against these targets and giving them one-to-one support from their tutors to show them how to improve.

“We made sure our lessons helped challenge pupils against these targets and made sure that tasks were differentiated for different ability groups.”