PLANS to improve a struggling Bicester school are not “fit for purpose” according to the latest report by Ofsted.

Last month inspectors revisited Bicester Community College (BCC) after it was put in special measures.

In February, the school received a damning Ofsted inspection that rated achievement, quality of teaching, behaviour and safety of pupils, and leadership and management as all inadequate.

At the time education boss Melinda Tilley described the report as the worst she had ever seen.

Now an interim report says the school has failed to make any progress. It said: n The local authority statement of action is not fit for purpose.

* The school improvement plan is not fit for purpose.

* The school may not appoint newly qualified teachers before the next monitoring inspection.

A statement of action sets out what a Local Education Authority will do to help a school with serious weaknesses.

Ofsted inspector Lorna Brackstone said: “There are no clear milestones to measure the success of the planned improvements and there is a lack of clarity in the urgency to improve teaching and raise student achievement.”

It is the second such statement prepared for the council that has been criticised by Ofsted. It said last month the council's plan for Fitzharrys School, in Northcourt Road, Abingdon, was also not fit for purpose.

Since BCC was put in special measures its governing body has been sacked and replaced with an interim board and principal Jason Clarke has left.

This week Cooper School’s head teacher Ben Baxter, pictured, has taken control of the school as an interim measure.

He has pledged to be “relentless” in trying to turn the school around.

Bob Wintringham, chairman of the school’s interim executive board, defended the work being done at the school. He said: “The Interim Executive Board had only been established for six days when the monitoring visit took place, and had not yet begun to turn the original set of long term objectives into a viable set of measurable actions.

“Our priority was to secure effective leadership for the school in the interim, which we have now done.

“The inspector was satisfied that the IEB had the capacity and expertise to oversee the improvement process, and I am sure that we can work with her and demonstrate rapid improvement over the coming months.”

Mrs Tilley said she was unable to comment as it was the pre-election period.

Oxfordshire County Council spokesman Owen Morton said: “Since the statement of action was drawn up in the absence of an effective leadership, it was to a large extent inevitable that there would be a lack of clarity concerning ownership of the plan and responsibility for monitoring the success of actions, which the Ofsted inspector has duly highlighted.

“The inspector did note, however, that the consultant had highlighted the right priorities for improvement. The county council will be working closely with both the school and the IEB enable this to happen as quickly as possible.”