A SCHOOL which was given a notice to improve by Ofsted is no longer considered to be “inadequate” following a further inspection.

Ofsted inspectors visited Marriotts School in Stevenage two weeks ago and placed the school under the “requires improvement” category, formerly termed “satisfactory”.

The inspection comes a year after Ofsted published a report which said the school was inadequate, and follows the opening of a multi-million pound building in January this year which sees Marriotts students and Lonsdale School pupils come together under one roof.

The latest report, published today (Thursday), said achievement of pupils, quality of teaching, and leadership and management all requires improvement, while behaviour and safety of pupils was deemed to be ‘good’.

It said: “Although more teaching is good or better, some still requires improvement. Expectations are too low in some lessons, where work is not well matched to abilities, especially for the more able.”

About the strengths of the school, now based in Brittain Way, the report said: “Behaviour is now good and students feel safe as a result of the clear, consistent systems that have been put in place.”

Marriotts’ acting headteacher Geraint Edwards, who replaced former head Patrick Marshall after he was forced to resign in February 2012, said he was really pleased with the results.

“We’ve worked hard to make these changes and still have a lot of work to do, but I firmly believe that Marriotts can become an outstanding school,” he said.

“These results show that we have started our journey. I look forward to working together with the whole school community to make Marriotts a highly regarded and high performing school.”

The leadership team is now putting in place a school improvement plan for 2013-2014, ahead of a full Ofsted inspection due in 2015.