A “satisfactory” school has responded with “urgency, ambition and determination” after failing to meet Government standards earlier in the year.
According to Her Majesty’s Inspector Shirley Gornall, leaders and governors at Lord Street Primary School are “taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement” following their most recent Ofsted report.
A team visited the school over a two-day period in January and February, and while pupil behaviour was said to be good, problems were found with pupil achievement, quality of teaching and leadership.
Now, following a monitoring inspection at the end of April, Mrs Gornall found that the school’s policies for teaching and marking have been reviewed and amended. She also stated how a well-targeted consultancy support package to improve teaching in mathematics has begun, and that consultancy for improving literacy has been scheduled.
Mrs Gornall said: “The school improvement plan clearly indicates the actions to be taken and identifies appropriate success criteria, including challenging targets for pupils’ achievement.
“Achievement of pupils is regularly monitored.
“There are strong indications that the school’s very positive profile of pupils’ progress is being built upon and the gap between the attainment of pupils in the school and that found nationally is closing quickly.
“Staff morale is high and there is a ‘can do’ culture that means any barriers to improvement are quickly recognised.
“Governors are insightful, supportive of the school, and committed to its improvement.”
Ofsted will continue to monitor Lord Street Primary School until its next Section 5 inspection.