A DERBY secondary school has been told it "requires improvement", despite being given top marks for maths and its Skills Academy sixth form.
Inspectors visited Lees Brook Community School last month and decided that it needed to improve to be rated as "good" – a grading it was given during its 2011 inspection.
Head teacher Phil Dover said: "We are disappointed that the school has slipped from 'good' to 'requires improvement' but it was not altogether unexpected given the fall in exam results over the last two years.
"English in particular has been affected two years running by circumstances outside the control of the school, including national changes to the curriculum.
"But I am very pleased the inspectors acknowledged the improvements evident in English that we are sure will bring improved results this summer.
"Equally, we had already started working with other subject areas that the inspectors have identified and some changes have been put in place."
The inspectors, from the Office for Standards in Education, said that teachers need to set work that is hard enough to challenge the most able pupils and that progress in geography, science, history and modern foreign languages requires improvement.
Their report also said that the governing body has not always applied procedures correctly when responding to complaints and recommended an external review of governance should be carried out.
But they did praise provision for students' personal development and for their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and said it was "good".
They added that pupils "make outstanding progress in maths" and "attendance is improving and the number of students who are excluded is falling".
It has been a busy year for the Chaddesden school, whose staff and pupils moved into a new building in November.
Mr Dover said: "We accept that some teaching needs to improve and believe that now the school has settled into the new building, this is an area where we will see rapid progress. The inspectors acknowledged that we know what is working well, which is reassuring.
"Having had nearly two years of disruption while the new school was being built, we are confident that the plans we have already put in place for improving those areas identified in the report will be effective."
Mr Dover said he was pleased that the report noted that around the school, "our students are courteous and friendly towards each other and towards adults" and that many talk happily about how much they enjoy school and about their work and ambitions.
Mr Dover added: "The governors and I have acknowledged the need for any complaints to be followed up quickly and they will welcome an external review of this aspect of leadership and management. They have already put in place new procedures to improve how complaints are dealt with."
