The school failed in key areas and was judged ‘inadequate’ across the board, in the achievement and behaviour of pupils, teaching, and in leadership and management.
Inspectors found in a February report sent to parents on Monday 23 March that “too many teachers have low expectations of students…the attitude of students to learning is weak, and behaviour inappropriate”.
Governors “have not acted quickly enough to tackle the college’s weaknesses and have not involved themselves in forward planning”, said the report.
It adds: “The quality of teaching over time is inadequate.”
Parents and carers have reacted angrily to the news.
One pupil’s grandmother said the school was “in a shocking state” and that when she passed there last week, there were children clearly visible to teachers smoking outside the main doors.
One dad-of-two said: “It is disappointing because two ‘superheads’ were brought in to turn things around but they failed too.
“Is turning the school into an academy really going to change the school for the better?
“Also, it’s a response that parents were very clearly against when it was proposed a few years ago.”
Former headteacher John Ferguson announced his early retirement in September last year after the third consecutive drop in GCSE results.
The number of pupils getting five A*-C grades at Irlam and Cadishead College fell 9% from 2013’s 44% to an all time low of 35% in 2014.
In 2010 the multi-million pound school was still being built, as this behind the scenes video shows.
Paid for with Private Finance Initiative cash, it was a flagship model of the Building Schools for the Future programme when it opened in 2012.
In October 2014 the school’s chair of governors, David Fairclough, hired David Lythgoe from Golborne High School to replace Ferguson on a three days a week basis.
In an otherwise damning report Ofsted found he was one bright spot, with “a clear idea of the college’s strengths and weaknesses [creating] a positive climate for improvement. Staff had been “receptive to the changes in recent weeks [with] rising morale.”
A statement from the Irlam and Cadishead Labour Party on Facebook tonight said it had become “concerned…in recent years” at the school’s performance.
“We opposed the governors’ attempt to become an academy three years ago. Fortunately, the head of the school resigned last December and a new Executive Head has been in place since last October.”
It said the inadequate rating would mean the Department for Education will now “insist that the school become an academy”.
“Although the branch is still implacably opposed to academies, we will support an application to join the Salford Academy Trust as it will ensure that the school remains within the family of Salford schools, where the city council will still exert some level of influence.”
