Staff and students at Oasis Academy Bristol are celebrating after getting the thumbs up from the learning watchdog Ofsted.

Inspectors who made their first visit since the academy in Hengrove opened 18 months ago said it was making good progress in raising standards.

They also praised improvements in the attendance levels, behaviour and attitudes of the school's 537 pupils.

The Ofsted team, which visited the school in January, highlighted the 26 percentage point rise in the number of pupils passing five or more good GCSEs last summer.

Lead inspector Lorna Brackstone said: "Standards are low because of a legacy of underachievement and a lack of consistently good teaching."

But she said rates of progress were accelerating and more students were on course to meet their challenging personal targets, while teaching was also improving.

The academy, which replaced the former Hengrove Community Arts College in 2008, had one of the worst records in the country for persistent absentees last year.

Ofsted noted this level had reduced and the academy was "steadily breaking the culture of low attendance". Punctuality was also said to be much better and exclusion rates reduced.

The inspectors praised the academy's "high quality strategic leadership" which, they said, was making a strong impact.

Their report stated: "Senior leaders provide clear direction, which is based on a secure knowledge of strengths that need to be built on and barriers that require removal. There is a relentless focus on raising standards ... the academy has a good capacity to continue to improve further."

Care, guidance and support for students was singled out for praise, as was the success of the visual arts specialism.

To improve further, Ofsted said, the school should improve students' reading skills and increase the proportion of good and outstanding lessons.

Principal Rebecca Clark said: "We are really pleased with this report.

"Great strides have been made in our first year to raise standards across the board, but we are not complacent. In fact, this report underlines the need for us to keep pushing for improvement on all fronts, with the knowledge that we are on the right track.

"We are fully committed to helping all of our students achieve their personal best in a safe and happy learning environment and now we have an assurance that this is in our sights."

Steve Chalke, founder of Oasis Community Learning, which sponsors the academy, said: "I am delighted that Oasis Academy Bristol have such a positive and encouraging report to now build on.

"Congratulations must go to the staff and students at the academy, and I have every confidence we will see continued growth and improvement from Oasis Academy Bristol in the future."