An Ofsted report has revealed “serious concerns” about the standard of education at the Isle of Sheppey Academy.

But a top teacher has defended the school, saying although parts of the report are fair, he is “disappointed” at the conclusion.

East site executive head David Rahman says staff are working hard to turn things around.

Ofsted officers visited last month for the school’s first monitoring inspection since it opened in September 2009.

One of the main issues raised was that the number of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is double the national average, and that positive GCSE results achieved last year masked a significant under achievement by lower-ability students.

The report also says the attainment in AS exams at the end of Year 12 was particularly low in some subjects, most notably in science.

It highlights the historic problem of poor attendance and says that “too many students are persistently absent”.

Improving this is put forward as an urgent priority.

The report also says the inspection “raised serious concerns about the rigour of procedures to check the suitability of staff to work with children” but it added the school has taken urgent steps to rectify this.

However, the inspection also revealed positives including improvements to the quality of teaching and in the attainment of the specialist business and enterprise subjects.

Pupils said there has been an improvement in attitudes and behaviour in lessons which allows them to enjoy their learning more.

The inspectors also felt the academy has a calm and ordered atmosphere where children generally feel safe, although a small minority have concerns about bullying.

Provision for those students with special educational needs or disabilities is improving.

Mr Rahman said staff were unhappy with the overall conclusion of there being “serious concerns about the standard of education”.

He said: “We are disappointed but we can’t alter it – we have got to pick up the gauntlet and we have accepted the challenge.

“It’s long-term. There’s no quick fix and we can’t change the culture of under -achievement that existed overnight.

“I know we are not yet the first choice for some parents on the Island but we are here to stay and we will take this report and move forward.

“Judge us in six months time.”

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Addressing the issue of pupils with special educational needs or lower abilities, Mr Rahman said they do have systems in place to help them.

As well as teaching assistants, each site has its own Every Child Matters section and many of the pupils are given extra support in the classroom.

He said in the school’s first year, the big challenge was to improve GCSE results for A*-C grades and all their efforts went into that target as well as helping the children settle in.

The report highlights a low attainment level in some AS subjects and Mr Rahman said the focus on science could be due to disruption when some of the staff left and the department was changed.

On staff checks, Mr Rahman explains that because a large amount of staff were “inherited” from other schools, a number of the checks were out-of-date but he said the staff were never a threat to the children.

Moving onto the attendance problem, he said staff are aware it is an issue and they are working to try and resolve it.

He said: “There’s a culture on the Island we are trying to break but we can’t do it overnight.”