INSPECTORS say the four-month-old Oxford Spires Academy has made “outstanding progress” in improving pupils’ behaviour and attendance.

The school, which opened on the site of Oxford School in January, was visited by its school improvement partner, Peter Johnson, ahead of its first Ofsted inspection next year.

The official report, seen by the Oxford Mail, predicts a huge jump in the school’s GCSE results, which could make the school one of the most improved in the country.

Students told the inspection team the Glanville Road, East Oxford, school’s image had improved, praising the new house system which encourages older pupils to support younger children.

In his report, Mr Johnson said: “The academy has made good progress overall and outstanding progress in increasing the attendance and improving the behaviour of students.”

Mr Johnson, who was appointed by the Department for Education, added: “Students consider the academy has improved in almost all respects. In particular they state that their relationships with teachers are much better, teaching is improving and is now more consistently good, students’ behaviour is much improved and their motivation is higher.”

Evaluation, coaching and professional development had improved teaching, the report said.

Mr Johnson added: “Results are set to rise significantly at all key stages. Data indicates that the percentage of students gaining five good grades, including English and mathematics, will be much higher than in the past, exceed the academy’s ambitious target and close to the national average.”

The school believes that 52 per cent of GCSE students will get five A* to C grades including English and maths this summer, up from 31 per cent at Oxford School last year. Principal Sue Croft, who is praised as “leading with distinction” in the report, said the final results could be even higher.

She said: “We are very pleased with where we are at the moment, but we can always be better and we want to be better.

“Our aim is to be rated ‘outstanding’ at our first Ofsted inspection, which we expect to be next summer.

“Our main focus at the moment is our Year 11s, who are sitting their GCSEs, and Year 12s and Year 13s who are sitting A-Level exams.

The report also shows that attendance is now above the national average, with persistent absence falling dramatically.

The number of exclusions have also decreased. So far there have been 26 exclusions involving 15 pupils since January, compared to 74 involving 57 children in the same period last year.