A PRIMARY school in Bridgwater has been told to improve in a "disappointing" Ofsted report. 

St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, Park Avenue, was inspected in May and was rated as "requires improvement" in the report published today (June 28). 

The school was rated as "requires improvement" in three out of five sections, and "good" in the other two. 

The report highlighted that some pupils' progress has not been rapid enough, and that school governors do not hold leaders to account well enough. 

Terry Mortimer, Ofsted inspector, said: "Progress in key stage 2 is not rapid enough for pupils to reach the expected standards required nationally.

"The progress pupils have made in mathematics, especially for girls, has not been consistently good. By the time they reached the end of Year 6, not enough pupils achieved the standards of which they were capable.

"The school’s self-evaluation and development plan are not rigorous enough in targeting key areas for improvement, specifically for key groups of pupils.

"Teaching is too variable across the school because there is inconsistency in the use of the agreed marking policy and the deployment of teaching assistants. This hinders the progress that pupils make.

"Teachers do not consistently use accurate assessments of what pupils can do to plan learning at the appropriate level for different pupils. Middle-ability pupils and the most able pupils do not receive the challenge they need to deepen their understanding, knowledge and skills.

"Governors do not hold leaders to account well enough or check how effective leaders’ actions are in raising standards.

"Attendance in 2016 was below the national average. Persistent absence was high for specific groups of pupils, although there have been significant improvements this year.

"Middle leaders, new to post, do not have sufficient clarity about the role they should play in whole-school improvement. They do not have clear priorities based on accurate use of reliable information. It is too early to see the impact of their improvement work."

The report also pointed out a number of strengths within the school. 

It stated:

  • The children get off to a good start in their school life because they have good-quality experiences in the early years, which ensures they progress well.
  • Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities are currently making good progress.
  • Pupils have significant opportunities to learn about moral issues, and other cultures and faiths. The school’s Catholic ethos and values underpin pupils’ development.
  • Pupils’ behaviour is good and they enjoy positive relationships with caring staff. Delightful, friendly and well-behaved pupils are an asset to the school community.

Richard Simmonds, headteacher and Chris Jarvis, chairman of governors, said: “Our children, staff and parents work very hard so this report is obviously disappointing.

"There is a lot of good work going on every day and we are glad that the report recognises our ‘delightful, friendly and well-behaved’ pupils as an asset to the school community. 

"The inspectors highlighted the good start we give children, the good progress made by children with Special Educational Needs, and the opportunities to learn about moral issues and other cultures and faiths.  Of course, we accept the areas where we can do better - for example in how we monitor progress and be more challenging of our pupils - and work is already underway to address them”.

Click here to read the full report.