LEADERSHIP and teaching at a Forest primary school have been declared inadequate by education inspectors.

The performance of Offa’s Mead Primary School in Sedbury has “declined significantly” since its last inspection by Ofsted when it was given a ‘good’ rating.

Leadership, quality of teaching, personal development and behaviour, outcomes for pupils and early years provision were all declared inadequate by the watchdog.

A new executive head, Suzanne Lloyd, was appointed in May last year and inspectors say that some of the right actions are now being taken to improve the deficiencies with parents recognising that improvements are being made.

But inspectors are critical of the fact that too few pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education and, because of inadequate teaching, pupils are making insufficient progress.

Underachievement is widespread in the school, say the inspectors, and standards are too low.

Improvement has also been hindered by “significant turmoil in staffing and a high turnover of staff.”

Offa’s Mead has been part of the Academies Enterprise Trust for the last seven years, but the watchdog said the trust “has not been effective in supporting improvement in the school.”

While some decisive action has been taken to remedy staffing issues, the trust’s actions aimed at improvement have not been implemented quickly enough, adds the report.

Until the arrival of a new special needs co-ordinator, teachers were unaware of, and therefore not complying with, the special educational needs and disability code of practice.

The inspectors said that until the start of the new school year last September there had been “little or no” structure and coherence to the curriculum.

A new curriculum framework has now been introduced, but it has been accepted by leaders that gaps remain and they are not meeting the legal requirement to teach a broad and balanced curriculum.

Governors have not fulfilled their statutory duties although there has been some action to tackle aspects of the school’s “many weaknesses,” says the report.

The inspectors found that the teaching of maths had improved in recent months with work better matched to national curriculum expectations.

There have also been improvements in reading, with reading ages in Year Six having increased by up to eight months in three calendar months.

Inspectors also found that many pupils demonstrate positive attitudes to learning and where expectations are higher, children take pride in what they have learnt.

A school “requires” special measures when it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education, and the people responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement.

The Review approached the school for a comment.