A SCHOOL has been put on "special measures" in a bid to improve standards.

A scathing Ofsted report, the second in a year, says Higher Lane Junior School in Whitefield is "failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education".

Teachers themselves are singled out on several occasions by inspectors, who say the quality of teaching must improve.

The independent inspector said that standards in the foundation subjects and aspects of the core subjects were not high enough.

This is despite the school's results in national Key Stage tests being "well above average", and that the school had earned one of the Government's Improvement Awards.

However, it was criticised last year for poor management and for health and safety risks posed to pupils by the state of the building.

An inspector went back to the school in April and May this year, and said that it had made insufficient progress.

"The school requires special measures since it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education," says the inspector. The quality of teaching overall was "unsatisfactory", and "in too many lessons, the pupils spent long periods as passive listeners and were not actively engaged".

The inspector said the curriculum is "too narrow", adding that the school "has not implemented the national literacy and numeracy strategies sufficiently well for the pupils to benefit from the teaching methods and subject content advocated". Some staff "are too resistant to the changes that are required".

On the positive side, pupils are praised for good behaviour, above-average attendance, and willingness to help each other despite the "cramped" spaces in which they have to work.

The head teacher has "a clear vision" for the school, and governors are praised for their support, with much achieved to improve the condition of the school building and playground. Links with parents were successful. Support from Bury Council has been good, says the report, but this has had a limited impact for three reasons: "the reluctance of some staff to act upon the advice proffered, the conflicting messages conveyed by some of the consultants and advisers, and the lack of knowledge about up-to-date teaching methods and subject matter".

In conclusion, the inspector says the school needs to improve the quality of teaching, devise a simple way of planning the curriculum, and rigorously monitor the teaching, planning and standards attained. Under special measures, the school will receive support and advice from Ofsted.

Mr Gerry Mills, chairman of governors, said: "We have listened to what Ofsted have had to say and we now know the targets that have to be reached in order for Higher Lane Junior School to continue to serve its local community well.

"We have achieved highly in the past and I am confident that we will do so again.

"We have a lot of hard work ahead of us but we are all prepared to put in the effort that is required."