Totternhoe primary school told to improve after Ofsted visit
A school near Dunstable has been told to improve its teaching and how it communicates with parents after Ofsted inspectors visited the site.
Totternhoe Church of England Academy, run by Diocese of St Albans Multi-Academy Trust, was inspected by the education regulator in June of this year, and at the time, had 183 pupils attending the school in Church Road.
The report, published this week, found that the school needed attention in four of the seven areas of assessment.
Headteacher Matt Hudson said: “We are pleased that inspectors recognised the positive changes taking place across the school, particularly in safeguarding, behaviour, attendance and inclusion.
“We remain fully committed to building on this progress and ensuring every pupil achieves their full potential.”
One of the areas requiring attention was the achievement of the pupils at the school, with not enough achieving as well as they should in the national tests and assessments at the end of Year 6.
The report stated: “This means some pupils do not reach the standards expected for their age or the higher standards that they are capable of.”
The school was commended for how it makes sure that children with special educational needs and/or disabilities “complete the same or similar work as their peers”.
Inspectors said: “Staff focus closely on helping them make progress through the curriculum. This is an important priority, as this was not always the case in the past.”
The report also found that the quality of teaching varied across the school.
Ofsted said: “Pupils do not always secure the knowledge they need to complete tasks. Leaders have taken action to improve this. “However, this is new, so its impact on pupils’ learning is not fully evident.”
Classrooms were described as calm, with staff able to deal with disruption quickly.
The report read: “This enables pupils to learn because learning time is maximised. Pupils say behaviour has improved over time. Staff stop any rare incidents of bullying. As a result, most pupils feel safe in school.”
Staff working with the younger children were commended for showing pupils kindness and care.
Ofsted did criticise the leadership team. The report stated: “...many parents and carers lack confidence in the school. This is shown in responses to the Ofsted parent survey.”
But new leaders say they have been working to improve this.