A primary school in Northampton has become the first in the county to be placed in the new “requires improvement” category after an Ofsted inspection.
Barry Primary School in Northampton, which was inspected on September 12 and 13, would previously have been classed as “satisfactory” but this category has been removed from the Ofsted ratings.
Despite no “inadequate” features being found, the school is now said to “require improvement” and is “not good” due to inconsistencies in teaching.
A report of the visit stated: “Inconsistencies in the teaching, particularly in Key Stage 2, mean that pupils learn faster in some classes than others.
“Not all teachers plan tasks that are challenging yet achievable for pupils of different abilities and the pace of some lessons is too slow.
“In mathematics at Key Stage 2, pupils’ weak calculation skills hamper their progress. Teachers’ knowledge of how best to teach mathematical skills is not always good enough to make the best of pupils’ abilities.”
Headteacher Anne Smith, who took over at the start of the term, said she “couldn’t disagree” with the findings of the report but said she had also taken a lot of positives from what the inspector had concluded.
She said: “There are a lot of positive things in the report and I’m really pleased that the Ofsted inspector said we had the capacity to improve quickly.
“We will have another Ofsted inspection in a year or so and I’m confident that we will then be rated a good school.”
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