Inspectors said ‘more work is necessary’ for an East Lancs school to become good in the eyes of Ofsted after a monitoring visit.

Balladen Community Primary School, in Linden Lea, Rawtenstall, was graded as requires improvement at its last full inspection in November 2021.

Despite some progress being made, inspectors said more work was needed before the school could be deemed good on a recent monitoring visit.

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The report said: “Since the previous inspection, approximately half of the teachers and teaching assistants have left the school. Several new staff have joined.

“Since then, the school has taken effective action to tackle the weaknesses in the curriculum design and delivery.

"For example, in some subjects other than English and maths, the school has used published schemes to help teachers know what key concepts and vocabulary to teach.

“Nevertheless, in some units of work, the school has not identified the small chunks of knowledge that pupils should gain by the end of each topic.

“The changes to the curriculum did not have sufficient time to make an impact on pupils’ achievement at the end of key stage 2 in the national tests and assessments.

"The unvalidated published data for key stage 2 shows that Year 6 pupils’ attainment and progress were significantly below average.

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“The published data does not reflect the achievement of pupils currently in the school.

"These pupils, who have benefitted from the curriculum for longer, are making increasingly steady gains to their learning.

“The school has started to improve the quality of subject leadership. It is building the confidence of individual leaders to check the delivery and impact of the curriculum by providing them with training and support.”

The school was inspected on November 3 and will be inspected again in the next two and a half years.

The school has been contacted for comment.