TWO years ago a Hampshire school was told pupils were not making enough progress and improvement needed to be made.

As a result of Toynbee school being ranked in the ‘requires improvement’ category it was subject to increased monitoring by government inspectors.

Now staff and students can celebrate after being rated ‘good’ by the school’s watchdog, Ofsted.

The school was rated good, the second- to-best category, in all the key target areas.

But the leadership team has vowed to continue the improvement with the headteacher of the Chandler’s Ford secondary school pledging to make the school the best in the area.

Since taking over the school five years ago, Matthew Longden has seen the dedication of his staff and students push them to a higher standard of education.

“It has been a really tough two years but this is proof that all the work is worthwhile,” he said.

“When we required improvements, we knew there were things that needed changing quickly and we did that.

“Moving forward we need to take the inspectors’ notes onboard to make sure at the next inspection we are rated ‘outstanding’.

“I want Toynbee to be the best school in Chandler’s Ford and I will not rest until I achieve that.”

In the latest report, inspectors said teachers at the Bodycoats Road school provided lessons that were exciting, lively and challenging whilst there had been an acceleration of progress by pupils.

They also praised the behaviour of pupils and said the moral of staff was high.

In the report, Ofsted inspectors also said:

• Some of the teaching is outstanding.

This is because there is a spirit of continuing improvement and staff are being held to account.

• Putting measures in place to accelerate the progress of underachieving, disadvantaged students.

• Subject leaders working closely and effectively with students to drive stronger improvements at the school.

• There is a high level of staff morale thanks to the quality of management and leadership of the school.

• Students are proud of their school. The vast majority behave in a mature and thoughtful manner.

Despite the improvement the maintained secondary school, which has 746 students enrolled, has demonstrated, Mr Longden has already begun the next stage of his improvement plan to ensure Toynbee is rated as ‘outstanding’.

On his hit list is a series of recommendations that inspectors said needed to be achieved if the school was to become rated as among the best in the country.

The series of recommendation included:

• Assisting students to develop more resilience from their learning and problem-solve in moments of doubt.

• Strengthening students’ understanding of diversity and equality.

• Improving the standards of teaching for science to meet the high standards of maths and English.

Mr Longden said he knew there was still work to do but was confident it would be achieved as the improvement plans were now in place He said: “We know we still have work to do, but our improvement plans are now in place.

“So once we meet the first benchmark we will move on and try and hit the next.

“The hardest part is having all those ducks of English, maths and science to line up in a row.

“We may not quite be there with science but we do have all the wheels in motion to make sure that we have the highest quality across all subjects.”