Tipton infant school told to improve by Ofsted

Silvertrees Academy Trust in Tipton has been rated as requires improvement in four out of five areas following an inspection.

Inspectors said quality of teaching at the school, which has more than 360 pupils aged three to seven, needed to improve and they said governors 'do not have a fully accurate view of the school'.

The report from an inspection in February states the proportion of pupils who have special educational needs or disabilities is around one in four, which is 'well above' the national average.

• Click here to read the full Ofsted report

Leadership has also been told it needs to improve, with the education watchdog stating that leaders have an 'over-generous' view of the school.

Inspectors found governors 'do not offer enough challenge and are not sufficiently informed about how well different groups of pupils are doing, including disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs or disabilities'.

Teaching does not do enough to challenge lower-attaining pupils, Ofsted said.

The report states: "Low-attaining pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, in Years One and Two are not making enough progress, especially in mathematics. Outcomes at the end of Year Two in 2016 were low for these pupils in reading and writing, and very low in mathematics."

Ofsted said that teachers are not setting challenging targets for pupils who need to make rapid progress and teacher's expectations are 'not sufficiently high enough'.

They also found that a number of pupils reported that work in mathematics and English was either 'too hard or too easy.'

However, the school's development, behaviour and welfare has been rated as good, with pupils from different backgrounds described as getting on 'very well together' by inspectors.

The school's headteacher, who has 'tackled the financial situation caused by historical over-staffing', has been praised in the report and the education watchdog found that the school deals with bullying well.

Headteacher Dawn Garratt said: "The staff and Governors of our school are already making steps towards the improvements suggested by the Ofsted team."