A ROSSENDALE school has been told that it requires improvement following a visit by inspectors, but it is now on the right track.

Teachers at Britannia Community Primary School in Rochdale Road, Bacup, were told that they are failing to meet the necessary standards in a number of different key areas following an Ofsted inspection.

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The school, which has a newly appointed headteacher, Natalie Longstaff, was told that not enough pupils are making good progress in reading, writing and mathematics as they move through the school.

Lead inspector Janette Corlett said: “The quality of teaching is variable. Teachers do not all have high enough expectations of how much work pupils should produce in a given time and of the quality and presentation of this work.

“The gap between the performance of disadvantaged pupils and other pupils in the school remains too wide.

“In too many lessons, work is not sufficiently well planned to challenge all groups of pupils to achieve well.

“The most able pupils are not always moved on to harder work quickly enough.

“Equally, in some lessons, the less able pupils struggle to make progress because they do not fully understand the tasks they are expected to complete.”

However, the report did point out that the headteacher, who was only appointed in September 2014, has a clear understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses.

“She (the headteacher) has already introduced effective systems to check how well the school is doing and to hold teachers to account for pupils’ progress. As a result, this is an improving school,” added Mrs Corlett.

“Teaching is improving because teachers and support staff now have opportunities for training and development.”

The school was also praised for the good behaviour of pupils and for being a safe environment.

In her report, it was also said: “Pupils attend regularly, enjoy coming to school and treat one another and adults in the school with respect.

“Pupils with special educational needs make good progress owing to high-quality intervention and support.”

The last Ofsted inspection for the Rochdale Road school, conducted in May 2012 under previous headteacher Mike Hull, had rated the school as “good”, with some examples of outstanding teaching practice and targets used effectively to inspire progress in some lessons.