ONE of Bradford's largest schools is taking effective action towards removing its serious weaknesses after a decade of instability, according to Ofsted.

Hanson School, in Sutton Avenue, is currently rated Inadequate by the education watchdog.

Inspectors visited most recently on July 14 and 15 this year, with the report published on September 27.

This was the school's first proper monitoring inspection since it was deemed to be Inadequate in March 2020 and was also judged to have "serious weaknesses".

Ofsted did visit Hanson in November 2020 and March this year, but these inspections focused on the school's response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The overall assessment of this latest monitoring visit was that leaders, and those responsible for governance, are taking effective action toward the removal of the serious weaknesses designation.

Inspectors also said that the local authority's statement of action and the school's improvement plan are both fit for purpose.

The report states: "The school has been through a significant period of instability.

"There has been involvement from three successive multi-academy trusts since 2011.

"This has taken up a large amount of the headteacher’s time.

"Uncertainty about academisation remains.

"This, along with the pandemic, has delayed the pace of progress in some aspects of the school’s improvement work.

"Nonetheless, leaders, including governors, have been determined and resolute in their focus to improve the school."

This has included wholesale changes in staffing and leadership.

More than 20 teaching staff have left since March 2020 - they have have been replaced, including new leaders of English and mathematics.

The senior team has expanded, with two new assistant headteachers, who are responsible for behaviour and attendance, and three associate assistant headteachers.

Hanson's most pressing and urgent issues - pupils' behaviour and attendance - have been prioritised in the past year-and-a-half.

The school's leaders have successfully worked with a national support school (NSS), a national leader of education (NLE) and the local authority school improvement adviser to bring about rapid and sustained improvements.

The report states: "Pupils’ behaviour has improved significantly since the previous inspection."

It adds that the school's new behavioural policy has been applied more consistently by all staff and the atmosphere in and out of lessons is calm and orderly.

Behaviour incidents and fixed-term exclusions continue to reduce.

Hanson has worked to develop an ambitious curriculum for all pupils, but more needs to be done, according to inspectors.

Computing, modern foreign languages and history are examples of subjects where the learning schedule is well-sequenced.

But the report states: "In other subjects, such as English, mathematics and science, leaders have not identified the crucial knowledge that all pupils must know and remember over time.

"These plans do not identify precisely the sequence of learning.

"Additionally, some teachers are too focused on preparing for the GCSE examinations.

"This means that some pupils are not spending sufficient time learning important curriculum content."

The T&A contacted Hanson School for comment, but received no response.