A PRIMARY school has been told to improve its teaching by government inspectors.

Holy Cross Catholic Primary School on Charles Street, which has more than 200 pupils was found wanting on a number of key issues by Ofsted including leadership, quality of its teaching, personal development and behaviour and educational achievement by its pupils.

The only area where it was ranked ‘good’ by Ofsted was in its early years provision, which takes in a high number of immigrant children and has up to half its pupils on free school meals.

The lead Ofsted inspector Christine Howard said that since the previous inspection in 2013, staffing changes had had a negative effect on the head’s and her team’s ability to improve the quality of teaching and learning and there had been a decline in standards at Key Stage 1 and 2.

Progress in reading was very weak but improvements in writing at KS2.

Ms Howard explained: “The pace of change needs to be accelerated further, so that recent improvements, for example in the teaching of mathematics, have a strong impact on pupils’ progress and more pupils achieve greater depth.

“Leaders understand the current strengths and weaknesses of the school. They have plans to tackle underachievement and there is some evidence of the impact of these plans. Current pupils’ progress is improving slowly."

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities were given appropriate support.

The inspectors said parents were very supportive of the school staff’s effort to ‘go the extra mile’ for their child.

It was noted that while governors were supportive of the head they did not always act as a cohesive group and because of the difficulties the school had faced it had affected their ability to work closely.

Head teacher Maureen Matthews said: "School leaders were pleased that Ofsted agreed the early years provision at Holy Cross is ‘good’ as a result of effective leadership and teaching.

“Ofsted makes reference to the turbulence Holy Cross has experienced in recent years and recognised the impact this has had on school outcomes. However, the school and the governing body are pleased that the report also notes the recent improvements in the teaching of reading, teachers’ good questioning skills and subject knowledge along with parents’ positive comments, noting our ‘amazing’ school.  

“Reading comprehension skills will continue to be developed and we expect to see further progress improvements in Maths and Writing by the end of KS2, building on our very good improvements in2017 from 2016.

“There is much in place for the governing body and school leaders to be confident that Holy Cross will meet the criteria for a ‘good’ judgement when Ofsted returns in the next 2 years.”

In November 2015, the school won the Carmel College Outstanding Academic Year Award from the Department for Education, after it was recognised as one of the most improved schools in the country for work with disadvantaged pupils.