PARENTS and staff at All Saints School in Dulverton have been discussing how to tackle problems after OFSTED inspectors ranked it as ‘requires improvement’.

Ofsted visited the school in September and has now released its findings.

It gave the school a rating of ‘requires improvement’ across all categories except early years provision, which was ranked ‘good’.

The findings include:

  • Pupils, particularly boys, do not make as much progress in writing as they do in reading and mathematics.
  • The gap between the attainment of pupils supported by the pupil premium and their classmates is not closing rapidly enough.
  •  Some of the most able pupils are not achieving as well as they should. 
  • Improvements in teaching have stalled recently because of the number of staff and leadership changes.  

Teachers’ expectations of behaviour are not high enough and the unsatisfactory behaviour in lessons of a small number of pupils is not always dealt with quickly.

In a previous Ofsted report carried out in September 2012, the school was told to “improve the quality of teaching”, “raise pupils’ attainment in writing” and “improve the effectiveness of leadership and management”.

All of these targets have been graded as requiring improvement in the latest Ofsted inspection. The school did receive some praise from Ofsted.

The report said pupils “enjoy being at school and say they feel safe” and that “pupils with additional needs are well supported in the ‘Badgers’ nurture group”, adding that nursery and reception pupils make good progress.

The report also praised school leaders for increasing attendance and the work that has been carried out with the other schools in The Exmoor Federation – Exford First School and Dulverton Middle and Community School – on creating a new curriculum.

A meeting was held on November 10 for parents and staff members to discuss the next steps for moving the school forward following the inspection.

A spokesman for All Saints Church School said they did not wish to comment at this stage.