Shrewsbury primary school told to improve by Ofsted

Pupils at The Grange Primary are failing to make good progress and staffing instability has hampered improvement, Ofsted has said.

Ofsted inspectors visited the school, which has 266 pupils, last month and gave it an overall rating of 'requires improvement'.

In a report published this week, lead inspector Mark Cadwallader said that the school's leaders had "not ensured that staff apply policies consistently" and "some teachers do not routinely engage pupils' interest or hold their attention to ensure that they make enough progress".

He added: "Teachers do not have high enough expectations of how pupils present their work and opportunities for pupils to apply their writing and mathematical skills are limited."

But the school did have a number of strengths.

The new headteacher had introduced a range of initiatives which are reversing the decline in pupils' achievements, inspectors found, vulnerable pupils were now supported and pupils well cared for and feeling safe.

The one area in which the school was found to be 'good' was its early years provision, with inspectors saying teaching was tailored to the needs of the children and as a result they make good progress.

In his report Mr Cadwallader said: "The headteacher has established an effective system for monitoring teaching.

"However, teachers have yet to apply all improvements required consistently and, combined with staffing absence and changes, this means that the impact of teaching on pupils' learning is variable.

"Teaching remains too variable across the school. In some lessons, pupils become bored, lose interest and describe their work as easy."

Geoff Pettengell, executive principal at Shrewsbury Academies Trust, which operates Grange Primary School, said: "The report's findings were exactly in line with the school's own self-evaluations.

"We are well aware that that certain areas do require improvement, and these issues are being addressed as a matter of priority.

"However, we are also really pleased to get a good rating in the early years provision, as well as pupil welfare and safety, and the inspectors noted recent improvements, which was also pleasing."