A SOUTH Shropshire school has been criticised by Ofsted inspectors for not challenging its students during lessons.
Onny C of E Primary School was visited by Ofsted inspectors back in January, and given an overall satisfactory rating. The primary school, which has 49 pupils, was given a rough ride by Ofsted inspectors over certain issues.
Inspector Gerald Griffin said: “Teaching is not consistently good or better because it does not always sustain a good level of challenge throughout lessons to ensure that pupils are always working hard. Usually this is because work does not match precisely the needs of each pupil.
“In such cases, some pupils find activities too easy and coast, while others struggle to make good progress because they find work too hard.”
Ofsted found that older pupils did not know what targets they should reach. Mr Griffin was also concerned about the attendance record of some students.
His report said: “While attendance has improved as a result of the school’s efforts, some pupils still do not come to school regularly enough. This slows their rate of progress because they are missing too many lessons.”
The Ofsted report also picked up on a host of positive parts of the school, including pupils feeling safe in school, bullying almost unheard of, and pupils making good progress in the reception class.
Parents were also found to be very happy with the quality of education the school provided, and children were said to enjoy school.
Overall Mr Griffin found: “Onny School provides a satisfactory quality of education within a very welcoming, safe and caring atmosphere.”
Phil Dale, headteacher at Onny School said: “Although the inspector says we are an improving school, he has raised some issues for us. We were already aware of these and have started to address them.
“On the attendance issue we are working with the local authority Educational Welfare Officer and have set targets. We are writing to parents to discourage them from taking holidays during term time and rewarding good attendance. We are also starting early intervention when a child’s attendance is dropping.”
Mr Dale said the school was also working hard to make lessons more challenging for students. He said: “We are working with our local authority School Improvement Partner to draw up an action plan. We are also looking at our planning and our teaching to ensure that all children are set challenging tasks/work across all areas of the curriculum.
“The school is using the assessment of pupil progress materials to monitor more closely what the children need to do next to improve and we are continuing to monitor children’s rates of progress.”
Mr Dale said there were many positive parts of the Ofsted report, such as safeguarding children, parental support through questionnaire, and the care and welfare of the children.
The inspector also found standards to be good in Early Years and Key Stage 1 sections of the school.
Mr Dale said: “We are particularly pleased that the inspector pays tribute to the quality of our life as a school community. We believe that, as a church school with a Christian ethos, this must be the foundation of all that we do.”
