OASIS Academy Longmeadow principal Caroline Cox is confident the Trowbridge school will be good by the time it has its next Ofsted inspection, after a new report found it “requires improvement”.

The report, which was produced following an inspection on March 3-4, rated the leadership, behaviour and safety of pupils, quality of teaching, achievement and Early Years Provision as “require improvement”.

It said that the school is not good because “there are gaps in the leadership of subjects and key stages”, while pupils’ attainment across the school in writing and maths is “not yet high enough”.

However, the inspectors also highlighted that the strong vision and ambition of principal Caroline Cox is “starting to successfully resolve long-term weaknesses” and the academy is now being well supported by the Oasis Multi-Academy Trust.

Mrs Cox, who initially joined the school as interim principal in February last year, said: “We have worked hard to improve in all areas and the report acknowledges that we are moving in the right direction.

“This is a long term project and the standards have risen in the last year. The report recognises my strong vision for the school and we are resolving all of the weaknesses.

“We now have a permanent team in place that will be able to take the school to the next level and Ofsted said we have made improvements since becoming an academy, with the support of the Trust.

“There wasn’t anything in the report that we hadn’t already highlighted to the inspectors and we will be working hard to ensure that the school will be good next time around.”

Inspectors found that teaching “does not always challenge and inspire pupils to do their best” and pupils are not always sufficiently aware of what they need to do to improve their work.

But the report also added that the “inspiration, determination and ambition” of Mrs Cox is starting to improve the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievement and the academy has a good capacity to improve further.

Mrs Cox added: “We have recognised the potential that is bursting from the school and we are already on the up. We have driven teachers with the same ambition as me and our parents are very supportive, so we are excited about what we can achieve.”