THE head teacher of an under fire secondary school admit the latest monitoring report has come as a blow but still believes the school can still be out of special measures following its next inspection.

In De La Salle's fifth check up since it was placed in special measures in January 2015, Ofsted inspectors noted that school leaders and managers "are not taking effective action towards the removal of special measures".

Progress was being undermined by "poorly planned and dull teaching".

The inspectors' findings, which have increased anxiety among worried parents, who contacted the Star this week, delivered a blow to the Catholic high school, which had been found to have been making positive progress in its previous four monitoring reports.

Inspectors criticised school leadership and highlighted that many departments work in isolation without sharing good practice.

They also said progress was being undermined by "poorly planned and dull" teaching.

Parents had contacted the Star to express concern over the speed of progress at the school.

Head teacher John Toal, who was appointed in September 2015, said of the findings: “The latest report is clearly a blow and inconsistent with the findings of the previous four monitoring visits which commented on the progress the school was making.

“Our school will not look to offer any excuses and accepts inspectors’ comments and concerns. However context is vital and while there are several points of concern within the report, inspectors once again commented positively on our staff and our pupils."

He added: “In addition, I want to reaffirm the commitment of the governing body and our staff to continue to do all that we can to ensure that the final Section 5 inspection - expected this term - will conclude that despite the various challenges operationally and financially we faced last year, we will come out of special measures.”

In the monitoring report inspectors noted: "The quality of teaching is not improving quickly enough because the leadership and management of teaching and learning are not strong enough".

It added: that many departments work in isolation and "not enough good practice is shared" and "teachers are not provided with high-quality support to improve".

Inspectors said: "The head teacher cares deeply about achieving the best outcomes for all pupils, but there is insufficient experience, support and expertise within the senior leadership team to rapidly raise standards" and that governors are often given "a more favourable view of standards than is actually the case".

It was noted pupils made "very strong progress in some lessons" due to "challenging and engaging teaching" but added that good progress is "undermined" by "poorly planned and dull" teaching.

They added: "Some of the most able pupils misbehave in lessons because they are bored. Some of the least able pupils become disengaged from learning because they have insufficient support to help them read and write properly".

The report said the vast majority of pupils behave well but that "recorded incidents of misbehaviour do not give a true reflection of standards because some staff fail to recognise or apply sanctions to pupils who behave badly in lessons and at social times".

It added: "Pupils rightly feel that sanctions are applied inconsistently, this leads to a feeling of inequality".

It was also said: "Too many pupils make little or no progress in lessons because what they are learning is boring or too easy".