A studio school that suffered a damning Ofsted report, poor recruitment and financial concerns has confirmed that it will be the 19th to close.

The Plymouth Studio School opened in September 2015 and moved into a new £4.2 million building in October 2016.

The school was rated “inadequate” in all areas following an Ofsted inspection in March 2018, which said that nearly a third of pupils were regularly absent, teaching was poor, and the culture of safeguarding was weak.

The school said a number of the issues raised by the inspectors had been addressed, with a safeguarding review completed in April.

Studio schools are a type of free school designed for pupils aged 14-19 to “address the growing gap between the skills and knowledge that young people require to succeed and those that the current education system provides”, by focusing on teaching through “enterprise projects and real work” in partnership with local employers.

According to Department for Education data, 59 studio schools have opened since September 2011, but the rate of openings slowed to just four in 2016 and three in 2017.

School ‘only half full’

Plymouth Studio School first announced in April that it was going to close, subject to a “listening period” involving parents and other interest parties.

The Department for Education has now confirmed that the school will close on 1 September 2018.

In its announcement, the school said it only had 155 registered pupils, despite having capacity for 300, and it expected this number to fall once the Year 11 and 13 pupils left this year.

It said all pupils currently registered at the studio had been offered places at other schools, with the majority having already transferred to them.

Sam Abbott, chair of governors of Plymouth Studio School, said: “Many studio schools have faced significant challenges and Plymouth is no exception, with the school struggling to secure adequate pupil numbers to ensure sufficient government funding.”