CONCERNS about the educational under-achievement of higher ability boys and the behaviour of a few pupils have clouded an otherwise very positive Ofsted report on John Hanson School.

The report, prepared by a 13 strong team of inspectors who watched 165 lessons between 25 February and 1 March, is the school's first since 1997 and the last before it moves to its new site in September.

The inspectors, who were led by Dennis Pittman, say for the first time in 2002 the 910 pupil school is significantly oversubscribed and point out severe problems caused by the shortage of accommodation will be overcome with the move to the new building.

Despite staffing difficulties caused by long-term illness and problems of recruitment the school is praised in the report for making good progress since 1997 and for improving the quality of teaching.

Two thirds of the teaching at the school is described as 'good' and 27 per cent is 'often very good or better'.

At GCSE level the report says that results have been in line with the national average but below the performance of similar schools.

The results of some higher ability boys have been below expectation and attainment in the higher grades has been below that of other schools.

Particularly high standards have been achieved at the school in design and technology, geography and PE but information and communication technology standards are low and 'not as high as they should be given the abilities of students'.

Although behaviour in and out of the classroom is said to be good inspectors commented that a few students in year nine, a child's third year at the school, 'can be difficult and disruptive'.

A minority of parents who were asked for their comments said that standards of behaviour at the school were not good and there was some parental dissatisfaction that children do not receive the right amount of work to do at home.

Most parents, however, said their children liked the school .

Headteacher, Steve Evatt, said: "The school's governors and staff have worked very hard over the last five years to improve on the standards observed in the previous inspection.

"We are very pleased that the inspectors have confirmed the results of our own internal monitoring of teaching and learning."

Raising the educational achievement of boys and giving more support to gifted and talented students are already part of the school's own improvement plan and governors are preparing an action plan to bring about further improvement.