Merchants Academy in Bristol is deemed inadequate by Ofsted after the attacks

In the Ofsted report, externalpublished on Wednesday, inspectors said pupils “often defy reasonable requests from staff”.

It also said pupils were getting “confusing messages” about how they should behave and that a “significant number” of sixth-formers were behaving anti-socially.

Older pupils are being bullied, inspectors said, adding that the school “doesn’t know who is affected”.

Inspectors added that the curriculum does not effectively address knowledge gaps caused by absences, meaning pupils “continue to fall behind and fail to reach their potential”.

However, they acknowledged there were “many examples” of positive relationships between staff and pupils, and pupils told inspectors there were “adults in the school they can trust with their concerns”.

The general school, made up of first, middle and sixth grade students, has around 1,300 students.