OFSTED inspectors have paid a monitoring visit to a Nelson primary school found to require improvement during an inspection in October.
During the visit to St John’s CE Primary School, meetings were held with school leaders, the school improvement plan was evaluated and a range of documentation was reviewed.
In his report, lead inspector Adrian Guy said: “Since the inspection the school has seconded a teacher to be the assistant headteacher for the rest of the year. Currently one member of staff is on long-term leave and another is due to take long-term leave shortly. There are a small number of vacancies for foundation governors that the governing body is currently seeking to fill.
“The school accepts that the outcomes and priorities from the recent inspection are the right ones, and has made suitable plans to strengthen the quality of teaching and learning in identified areas.
“The school improvement plan has been updated and milestones for checking improvement in the achievement of Year 5 and Year 6 pupils have been added. However, criteria to enable leaders and governors to measure how much progress is being made need sharpening further.
“Governors have discussed the improvement plans drafted by the headteacher and the local authority and have planned training to support them in their ambition to improve. The teaching and learning project brokered with the local authority has identified specific needs and actions the school needs to implement to bring about improvement.
“Activities are under way to check teachers’ planning and pupils’ work and these are timetabled regularly by senior leaders. The headteacher is intending to work with another local headteacher in order to support her in the journey to being judged good at the next inspection.”