£27m city academy 'looks good but has poor teaching level'

Ofsted said exam results at Westminster Academy were "exceptionally low" last year, while some teachers struggled to keep order during "uninspiring" lessons.

In the first official judgment on the new school, inspectors welcomed "signs of improvement" but warned the quality of teaching was still not good enough.

The findings come after the state-oftheart, privately backed academy was shortlisted for the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize for architecture.

Ofsted's criticism marks a blow for Labour's academies programme, which was set up six years ago to transform school standards in poor areas.

The 800-pupil academy opened in 2006, replacing North Westminster Community School, and moved to its new £27million site in Bayswater last year.

In a letter to the school's headteacher, senior inspector Linda Gill singled out standards in the new sixth form for criticism.

She wrote: "Progress in the sixth form is inconsistent between different subjects and between individual students on the same course.

"This is because of a combination of variable teaching quality, inconsistent academic guidance and the low attendance of some students. Standards in the sixth form are very low."

Last year's exam results saw just 17 per cent of teenagers score at least five C grades in GCSEs including maths and English. This summer the figure was little better at 19 per cent.

Ms Gill added that maths and science lessons were particularly weak.

"In the majority of lessons during this inspection, the quality of teaching was satisfactory," she said.

"In about one third of the lessons, the teaching was good. This is a considerable improvement ... but it is still not good enough."

Lesson "activities are too often uninspiring and passively received by the students", she wrote. Discipline and truancy had improved but there was still "low-level disruption" in lessons and "boisterous behaviour" between classes.

The academy's design, featuring a green aluminium façade and inner courtyard, earned it a place on the shortlist of six European buildings in line for this year's £20,000 Stirling Prize.

But low GCSE results mean it remains on the hit-list of secondaries that face closure if they do not improve. The report can be seen on Ofsted's website.

The Department for Schools said: "The overall tenor of this report is actually upbeat. It says the school is making satisfactory progress towards raising standards and that the leadership team have tackled many of the challenges they faced."

The academy's new headteacher Smita Bora said attendance and discipline had improved and most parents were happy with the teaching: "Most of our students speak English as a second language.

"We have high numbers of refugees and a huge percentage of students on free school meals - over 90 per cent. We are moving in the right direction."