A POOLE secondary school has been given a notice to improve after being branded “inadequate” by Ofsted.

Ashdown Technology College in Canford Heath scored the lowest ranking, a number four rating, for overall effectiveness.

The report said teaching was not good enough, especially in the 55-strong sixth form, and staff turnover has been a major problem.

A quarter of the staff moved on during the past four years and the head teacher was off for 12 months from Easter 2009.

One passage in the report says: “Too often teachers are not sufficiently ambitious for students and underestimate what they can achieve.

“In some subjects, work is ticked but no advice given. Even where targets are set, students are rarely given time to go back and correct work on the basis of the advice.”

The inspectors will return within 6-8 months and if improvements have not been made the school is at risk of being put into special measures.

Ashdown has 700 pupils and is the only one in the area to get its £13 million grant for a rebuild after the cancellation of the Building Schools for the Future Programme.

Poole’s cabinet member for education, Cllr Janet Walton, said yesterday: “It’s always very difficult when schools are going through a building process.

“There’s an excellent team at school, who are receiving a lot of help from the council to build on the good work that they do, so there can be a quick turn around.”

The school’s exam results are significantly below the national average but had been going up until 2010.

The inspectors said senior staff have made some improvements with problems like high truancy rates, and in the care for vulnerable students.

The Ofsted team spent two days in the school during November, observing 28 lessons and meeting with governors, teachers and groups of students. They also examined question-naires completed by 84 parents, 47 staff, and 102 students.

See the Ofsted in full for yourself at our Latest Ofsteds page in Education