A SECONDARY school head teacher said he took his school from “needs improvement” to “good” by asking for students’ help.

Chris Harris, head teacher of Larkmead School in Abingdon, said the key to success had been getting pupils involved in how they were taught.

The school, told to improve by Ofsted in February 2013, was upgraded to “good” this month after a visit from the education watchdog.

The 825-pupil school on Faringdon Road is now one position away from the top spot of “outstanding” – at the top.

Mr Harris, who has been head teacher at the school for 10 years said: “The student voice was really important.

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“There was a lot of work talking to students about the teaching and the quality of their progress. Students aren’t passive in this, it’s about their engagement in lessons, engaging them in their planning.”

After the school was told to improve, Mr Harris said he worked “forensically” with every member of staff in each subject.

In 2013 inspectors said there was “too much variation in achievement between subjects, and it is especially weak in core science and English”.

They said checks on the quality of teaching and the impact of new initiatives were not “rigorous” enough to lead to consistently good teaching.

Mr Harris has since instituted a policy of visiting five classes every day for 10 minutes for the past two years. Teachers’ marking and feedback to their students was assessed every six weeks with teachers and pupils.

He said: “We had a really strong focus on quality of teaching, marking and assessment.”

When inspectors visited on February 3-4, this year they said: “All teachers are clearly focused on helping students learn quickly.

“As a result, students’ achievement has risen sharply in recent years.”

They said the school’s leadership had improved the quality of teaching and students were “keen to learn”.

Mr Harris said one of the comments he was most pleased with was that teaching was “consistently at least good and some of it outstanding”.

He said: “As long as there’s consistency in every lesson they are going to get good teaching and we will get good progress.”

Inspectors also said students behaved well outside of lessons and were “courteous to others when moving around the school”.

Year 11 pupil Emily Cox, 16, said teachers motivated her by helping her understand her objectives and actively pushing her to reach targets.

Charlie Cooper, 15, added: “Teachers are making lessons fun and engaging, and that helped me improve my grades and raise my targets. I also feel more confident in lessons, knowing I can get help.”

Jordan Spratt, 15, said: “Co-operation with students, other students and teachers helps us visualise and put into effect the improvements we get set.”