TAVISTOCK Primary and Nursery School has been told it needs to improve in key areas following its latest Ofsted report.

The school has received the rating of ‘requires improvement’ in its latest report from the education inspectorate, which was published on Monday.

While the school was rated as ‘good’ in the areas of early years provision and personal development, behaviour and welfare, inspectors said it needed to improve in the other three areas of inspection — effectiveness of leadership and management, quality of teaching, learning and assessment and outcomes for pupils.

At its previous inspection, the school had been rated as good overall.

However, in his summary of findings this time around, lead inspector Matt Middlemore said that ‘the quality of teaching and learning across Key Stage 2 is too uneven, other than in mathematics’.

He also commented that there ‘has been a decline in outcomes since the previous inspection due to pupils not making good enough progress in writing by the end of Key Stage 2.

‘Pupils do not make good progress in writing in Key Stage 2 because teachers do not have high expectations of what they can achieve.’

The report stated that the school’s leaders had not taken swift enough action to deal with weak teaching and governors had not intervened to stem the decline in standards.

Mr Middlemore said this could be done by building on the good practice in Key Stage 1 throughout Key Stage 2 and ensuring teachers raised their expectations of what all pupils could achieve. All leaders – including governors – should also check more rigorously on how pupils were progressing.

The report also stated that ‘disadvantaged pupils, including the most able pupils and those who had special educational needs and/or disabilities, were not being effectively supported or challenged.’

In a letter to parents, headteacher Lynnette Selbie and chair of governors, Caroline Down, said: ‘We accept this judgement and have a clear understanding of the work that must be done to address the issues rapidly and effectively.’

Despite the need to improve Key Stage 2, there were positive aspects to the report.

The provision for children in the Early Years at Tavistock Primary and Nursery School and the quality of teaching and learning in Key Stage 1 was said to be good.

The report said children generally started school with low skills and knowledge for their age. But, by the end of Reception, they were achieving the level of development expected for their age.

‘The Early Years is a constant hive of activity with children purposefully ‘buzzing’ around their rich curriculum and well-designed activities,’ said Mr Middlemore. The knowledge, skills and attitudes the children developed prepared them well for starting Key Stage 1.

The report went on: ‘The quality of teaching and learning in Key Stage 1 is good. In 2016, the progress pupils made in English and maths from the end of Reception to Year 2 was in line with the national average.’

Across the school, pupils’ behaviour and conduct were good, said Mr Middlemore.

‘Pupils enjoy their learning and are very proud of their school. Classrooms are calm and purposeful places to learn.

‘The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good.

‘Pupils are friendly and polite (and) say they feel happy and safe at school.’

The children told inspectors that bullying was infrequent and was dealt with swiftly and attentively by staff members.

Work was already in place to address the inspectors’ concerns and the school would continue to build upon the results already achieved in 2017.