EDUCATION Secretary Michael Gove has insisted a shocking first Ofsted report for the new UCL Academy should not be seen as a slight on his favoured policy of letting outside sponsors run schools.

The New Journal asked him for his thoughts on the fact that the UCL Academy, in Swiss Cottage, had been hit by an inspection report that said it “requires improvement”, the lowly third-tier category on Ofsted’s four-rung rating system.

The school was told that gaps were forming between the most able and those who found school work more challenging and that special needs students were not progressing as well as they should.

Principal Geraldine Davies – the school uses the term “principal” instead of headteacher – reacted by writing to parents to say they would “not recognise” the school in the inspection report.

But UCL, the prestigious university in Bloomsbury which sponsors the school, has welcomed the findings and recognised the need to make changes.

Mr Gove said on Friday: “I think there are some things that the academy does need to address in order to improve but I’ve got every confidence that the governing body appreciates that the report was a fair judgment about where the school is now and that the changes, that do need to be made so that the students there get the education they deserve, are in train.”

He was speaking after a tour of the thriving St Luke’s free school, in Kidderpore Avenue, West Hampstead.

The UCL Academy was expected to be a shining example of the academy system. It boasts “superstudios” instead of classrooms, and tinkered with the timing of the traditional school day and the length of lessons. 

Critics said a new Camden school should have stuck with the system of being accountable to – and run by – the locally-elected council. Schools managed by the council can fall back on the Town Hall’s education department during times of difficulty. 

The borough’s secondaries play up the “family” nature of their relations. When Acland Burghley fell into the “requires improvement” bracket in Ofsted’s scoring charts, staff and governors from neighbouring Parliament Hill School offered support.

But Mr Gove insisted the academy system was the way forward, adding: “Camden has a pretty good record when it comes to school improvement actually, but academies overall outperform local authority schools. Making sure there is choice and diversity is a very effective way of giving all parents the chance of getting a school that suits their needs.”

He added: “There have been schools in Camden in the past that have been judged as requiring improvement. If we look at the schools across London, some of the best are schools established as academies in the first place – like Mossbourne – or schools that have converted to academy status – like Holland Park. 

“It’s important to recognise that UCL Academy has a strong sponsor and has the backing of the university. It has a willingness on the part of the governing body to work with other schools and improve.”