Serious concerns about behaviour at a Norwich academy have been raised after a snap inspection by Ofsted.

Serious concerns about behaviour at a Norwich academy have been raised after a snap inspection by Ofsted.

Problems with bullying, absence, exclusion and disruption at City Academy Norwich, on Bluebell Road, were all highlighted in a report published yesterday.

Leaders and managers were criticised for not doing enough to maintain the high standards of behaviour and attitudes.

Instead the inspector found behaviour had declined since September 2011, with fighting and verbal abuse of teachers amongst some of the worst areas highlighted.

The number of students excluded from the academy has increased, according to the report, which bucks the national trend. And the number of pupils who have been persistently absent from academy has peaked at almost twice the national average.

Bullying, particularly online, was highlighted as 'worrying' and the academy's police office has been made aware of the problems.

The inspector said: 'Although I saw some students remain fully engaged in their learning and on task, I saw too many incidences of students disrupting their own learning and that of their peers.'

He did, however, praise the support the academy gives students with challenging behaviour such as one-to-one sessions with counsellors and meetings with parents and carers which has improved attitudes to learning and their attendance.

David Brunton, principal of City Academy Norwich, said the academy has been piloting a programme to improve behaviour in lessons and emphasised the 'zero-tolerance' approach to bullying.

'It is clear that, on the issue of low-level disruptive behaviour in the classroom specifically, Ofsted has raised the bar and we welcomed the no notice HMI visit on 20 November which looked at this closely,' he said.'Ensuring that every one of our students is concentrating throughout all of their lessons is a key priority and is something we were already focussed on prior to this visit.