A state-aided Charedi school placed in special measures when it was downgraded to inadequate nearly two years has received an encouraging follow-up report from Ofsted.

Inspector Brian Oppenheim said the Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls’ School in Stamford Hill was taking “effective action” to come out of special measures and its action plan was “fit for purpose”.

In a letter to acting head Clare Neuberger, he also gave the go-ahead for the school to appoint newly qualified teachers, which it had been prevented from doing since the 2018 inspection.

Last year, Yesodey Hatorah was the top Jewish school nationally for progress from year seven to GCSE.

But while Mr Oppenheim acknowledged “strong “GCSE results, he said too much time was spent practising answers to questions at the expense of developing wider learning.

Pupils experienced a broad range of secular subjects and the option of vocational subjects such as child care helped them gain “a range of appropriate qualifications that meet their needs”. But biology was “still not taught in full.

“While this has little impact on overall achievement, it means that pupils are still not making the connections between physics, chemistry and biology as required by the national curriculum.”

Some progress had been made in the introduction of personal, social, health and economic education in the first year but the provision in other years lacked “ambition”.