A SCHOOL has been praised for making ‘significant improvements’ in its quality of teaching during a recent Ofsted inspection.

St Albans RC Primary School in Blackburn received a ratings boost from the education watchdog going from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘good’.

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The Trinity Street school was previously criticised because pupils did not make ‘consistently good progress’, the skills of middle leaders were ‘underdeveloped’ and tasks did not provide ‘enough challenge’.

Two years on, the school has now been hailed for providing ‘determined and focused’ leadership and higher standards of teaching.

Lead inspector Neil Dixon said in his report: “The headteacher and other senior leaders provide determined and focused leadership, which has brought about significant improvements in the quality of teaching and learning.

“Pupils are achieving higher standards than at the time of the previous inspection. By the time pupils leave Year Six, they reach above average standards in mathematics, and broadly average standards in reading and writing.

“Teachers’ subject knowledge is secure and they provide good support for individual pupils because they know their classes very well.

“Support for pupils who have special educational needs or disabilities and those who speak English as an additional language is highly effective. Governors know the school well and are providing an effective balance of support and challenge to school leaders.”

The report stated that the school was not yet ‘outstanding’ because pupils were sometimes ‘over-reliant’ on adult support and too many pupils were absent for short periods several times a year.

Teachers were also criticised for not ‘consistently providing’ the most-able pupils with ‘challenging’ activities and teaching in maths did not provide ‘enough opportunities’ for pupils to develop their problem-solving skills.

Headteacher Claire Speakman said: “I was impressed with the way the inspection was carried out and thought it was really positive.”

“We have really improved across all areas, particularly in our middle leadership where there’s been dramatic improvement. I’m glad this has been recognised.

“There has been a lot of support from the Blackburn Diocese, the governors and the council and I’m thankful for that and we will continue to keep improving as much as we can.”