Primary school told to improve by Ofsted

The school, in Chanctonbury Road, Burgess Hill, underwent a two-day inspection in May and the findings were published on June 12.Despite acknowledging the improvements already made by headteacher Candida Reece over the past year, lead inspector Julie Sackett and her team rated the school ‘requires improvement’ in three of the five categories.Only the early years provision and the personal development, behaviour and welfare of the children received a ‘good’ rating.In her report, Ms Sackett said: “Leaders’ actions to improve the school’s performance since the previous inspection have not secured good teaching and learning across the school. “Teaching is still too variable between classes and subjects to secure pupils’ good achievement in reading, writing and mathematics.”The children’s progress in all three subjects in 2016 was described as “uneven”. At the end of Key Stage 1 their outcomes were above the national average but by the end of Key Stage 2 they were below the national average. However, Ms Sackett recognised that the quality of teaching had improved over the past year, with pupils making better progress “particularly during Key Stage 2”. She added: “The current standard of pupils’ English and mathematics work in Year 6 is considerably higher than it was in 2016. More pupils are on track to achieve at least expected outcomes in 2017.”Looking at the areas highlighted for improvement, Ms Sackett found some teachers did not have sufficiently high expectations when it came or the quality of pupils’ work.As such, some of the work was described as “poorly presented” and showing “a lack of pride”. In addition, Ms Sackett said more needed to be done to “extend and deepen” the children’s understanding of their work, particularly the most able.When it came to the children themselves, the report found their good behaviour and positive attitudes to learning made “a strong contribution to their progress and to the hard-working atmosphere in the classrooms”.Youngsters told Ms Sackett teachers made sure they were safe, while the teachers were seen to act “promptly and appropriately” to any safeguarding concerns.London Meed Primary was approached for comment but had not responded by the time the Mid Sussex Times went to press.

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