One of Kent’s biggest schools is locked in a battle with Ofsted over an inspection that has seen its rating downgraded.

Bosses at the Canterbury Academy have challenged the education watchdog’s verdict after being dropped from a ‘Good’ grade to ‘Requires improvement’.

Inspectors visited the Knight Avenue secondary in February, but the publication of their report was delayed until yesterday as Ofsted investigated concerns raised by school leaders.

Executive principal Jon Watson claims the rating was based on “small, snapshot evidence” collected during a two-day visit to the school, which has more than 1,800 pupils.

The academy’s legal team has now requested Ofsted carry out an internal review of the inspection and handling of the school’s complaint after it refused to change the grading.

In the report, inspectors raised concerns about attendance levels and the behaviour of pupils at the school, adding that the curriculum was not consistently implemented across all year groups.

But they did praise the school for dealing with bullying concerns quickly and having core lessons that provided youngsters with important knowledge about staying safe.

Responding to the report, Mr Watson said the areas for improvement should not have been enough to downgrade the school given the issues were “rectified immediately during the inspection”.

“It remains very difficult to understand how this overall judgement can have been made on such small, snapshot evidence, based on around nine hours of evidence gathering in such a complex, multi-faceted school,” he said.

“Regrettably, it may well have been too much for inspectors to ‘get’.”

Mr Watson said that in the five months since the inspection the school has continued to contest the judgement, complaining that students and staff were left “upset and confused” following the visit.

“In answering our complaint, Ofsted ‘regretted’ and ‘apologised’ for aspects of the inspection,” he claimed.

“Despite these regrets and apologies, they have not agreed to rescind or change their judgement.”

In the report, Ofsted said school leaders had been focusing on improving attendance since the previous inspection in 2017.

However, it said “there are still too many pupils who do not attend school regularly, in particular students in the sixth form and pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds”.

“Leaders are taking action to address attendance concerns but there has not yet been demonstrable and sustainable improvement,” the report said.

Inspectors said relationships between staff and pupils were “respectful”, and youngsters “respond appropriately” to the behaviour policy.

But there were some lessons and social times when behaviour fell below high expectations, and was “not managed consistently and effectively”.

‘Although we clearly recognise its work, it is not Ofsted that we work for...’

Ofsted also found although members of the local governing board and the board of directors were “united in their ambition” to provide broad opportunities to all pupils, they did not yet have a “fully accurate view” of the areas that need prioritising in the school.

And despite teachers being keen to engage students in reading, inspectors found pupils were not benefitting from a “clear and timely approach to improve their reading confidence and fluency swiftly”.

The school – which is set to form an academy with the city’s Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys – was marked ‘Requires improvement’ in three out of five specific areas; quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, and leadership and management.

it was rated ‘Good’ in two areas; personal development and the sixth-form provision.

In response to the inspection, Mr Watson said the academy requires improvement “no more than any other school in the country”.

He continued: “I have proudly worked at The Canterbury Academy for 20 years and, in that time, because of ever-changing Ofsted inspection frameworks and the way in which schools are judged, we have been labelled ‘Outstanding’, ‘Good’ and requiring improvement.

“For those reasons, as parents will remember from our open events and time spent on campus, we do not promote the Ofsted status of our schools; you will not see Ofsted logos or branding anywhere around our campus, on minibuses or on our promotional material.

“Although we clearly recognise its work, it is not Ofsted that we work for – it is our children and our community that we serve.

“Given our ongoing popularity and oversubscription in every year group, it seems that our families very much support that message and our ethos.”

Earlier this year, Phil Karnavas, who led the Canterbury Academy until his retirement in 2017, revealed why he believes the education watchdog is well-past its sell by date.

It followed national headlines about the tragic death of headteacher Ruth Perry, who took her own life in January after being told Caversham Primary School in Reading was being downgraded from ‘Outstanding’ to ‘Inadequate’.

When contacted about the Canterbury Academy’s complaints, Oftsed said it had nothing to add to its published inspection report.