EARLIER this year Larkmead School was hailed as the most improved school in Oxfordshire.

Yet inspectors have only rated the Abingdon comprehensive progress as ‘satisfactory’ after a recent visit.

The Faringdon Road secondary school was listed among the top 100 most improved in the country when the 2010 GCSE results were announced in January.

The school saw the proportion of pupils getting five A* to C grades including English and maths go from 34 per cent in 2007 to 56 per cent last year.

But following last month’s inspection by independent education watchdog Ofsted, the school was rated overall as ‘satisfactory’ – the same it was rated after the last inspection three years ago.

This has left teachers scratching their heads.

Headteacher Chris Harris said: “I was disappointed we did not get ‘good’ for progress. We have progressed massively. We are more improved than any other school in the Oxfordshire in the last four years.”

Ofsted rates schools in grades - poor, satisfactory, good, and outstanding.

Of the 28 categories in Larkmead’s report, 16 were good or outstanding and the rest were satisfactory.

The report praised pupil’s behaviour and attendance, and the contribution they make to the community, but said the school needed to improve the quality of teaching and learning.

Mr Harris said: “It is quite clear from the report that good and outstanding are well within our grasp.

“We progressed faster than the national average.

“That is going to continue and if we carry on the trajectory we are on we will be good and then outstanding in the next few years.”

Attendance at the school, which has pupils from some of the most deprived areas in the county, was 87 per cent in 2006. It is now 94 per cent.

Mr Harris, who has been head teacher for six years, added: “The obvious thing is that kids really enjoy going to school.”

Ofsted inspector Clive Kempton said in his report: “Larkmead is a satisfactory and improving school.”

And in a letter to Larkmead students, he said the “school is now poised to make much quicker progress”.

They said: “I am expecting great things when the school is inspected next time.”