A teaching school is to lose its status after it was found to be inadequate by Ofsted inspectors.
Cramlington Learning Village, an academy, was put into special measures by the inspectorate. It was previously outstanding.
The secondary school, which caters for 2,000 pupils in Northumberland, became an academy in 2011. It has been a Teaching School since 2013 and works with 14 schools in the area.
Teaching schools are outstanding schools that work with others to provide high-quality training and development. The initiative was set up the coalition government in a bid to improve teacher training retention.
The school has expressed its disappointment with the Ofsted outcome, which was released today – the last day of term.
In a letter to parents its headteacher and chair of governors wrote: “As a nationally designated Teaching School we pride ourselves on our work in this area.
“Over the course of the last fifteen years we have worked tirelessly to ensure that the school is outstanding.
“We have developed a national reputation for teaching and learning and we have worked with many other schools locally and nationally to develop this aspect of their work. We are therefore dismayed by the overall judgement which does not reflect the day to day experience of our students.”
Ofsted said in its report that the school’s performance has “declined dramatically”, governance was “ineffective”, pupils’ behaviour had “markedly deteriorated” and that teaching is “insufficiently challenging”.
A Department for Education spokesperson told Schools Week: “Whenever Ofsted finds a teaching school to be requires improvement or below, the school is de-designated. This is what is going to happen in the case of Cramlington.
“The National College of Teaching and Leadership works with schools in this position to transition teaching school provision to other local teaching schools.”
There are two secondary teaching schools within a 10-mile radius of Cramlington – Whitley Bay High School and George Stephenson High School.
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