School given three-year deadline to improve (From Thurrock Gazette)

School given three-year deadline to improve

7:00am Sunday 25th November 2012 in News

A PRIMARY school has been told it must make improvements quickly after inspectors warned it could slide into special measures.

Stanford-le-Hope Primary, in Copland Road, has been told it “requires improvement” following Ofsted’s latest inspection.

The school was graded the same in both its 2007 and 2010 inspections, when the category, which is the second worst rating, was called “satisfactory”.

Under the new rules, the “satisfactory” category was changed to “requires improvement” in September, and schools which fall into it are now expected to make rapid changes within three years or face being put in special measures.

The latest report for Stanford-le-Hope Primary criticised the failure to improve, and said some teachers had “low expectations” for pupils.

It said: “Leaders have been slow in addressing sustained poor performance.

“The quality of teaching is not strong enough to ensure good progress for all pupils, as some teachers’ expectations are too low, especially for what more able pupils can achieve.

“In some classes, mainly in the lower years, the pace of learning is too slow and pupils only make adequate progress.”

The report also said that while many parents thought teaching at the school was good, Ofsted disagreed.

It said: “Inspectors disagree with the view of the majority of parents who responded to the online survey that the quality of teaching is good.

“There is not enough good teaching across the school, and this is the main reason why most pupils only make adequate progress.”

The report said that while there was a good level of support in some lessons, Ofsted inspectors had witnessed lessons where pupils were “confused” and nothing was done about it.

It said: “Teachers work well with the teaching assistants to ensure they offer good quality support in the lessons.

“More typical, however, was a mathematics lesson where basic misunderstandings were not picked up and rectified by the teacher. “Instructions were not clear, and that meant pupils were slow to get on with their work as they were confused.”

Headteacher Linda Moore said the report recognised that staff were committed to making improvements, and pointed to positives, including the quality of marking, pupils’ behaviour, and their progress in English and maths lessons.

She added: “However, this report is another challenge for the school, but we are convinced that, with the support of the staff and governors, we can and will meet it.”