A PRIMARY school has been told it requires improvement.

Briercliffe Primary School was inspected during May by education watchdog Ofsted and received the same rating as its previous inspection in December 2012.

The inspectors said pupils were making expected progress from the start of school to Year Four.

The quality of teaching in Years Five and Six was described as ‘good’, with pupils in those years making ‘good progress’.

Adrian Francis, lead inspector, said: “The achievement of pupils, while improving, is not yet consistently good for children in the Early Years Foundation Stage and between Years One and Four.

“Standards in reading, writing and mathematics in these year groups, given their starting points, are not high enough.

“Too few pupils make more than the expected rate of progress,” the report went on to say.

The inspectors added that the new headteacher, Robert Blanchet, ‘knows precisely what is needed to improve teaching and achievement’.