ELMBRIDGE Infant School is taking immediate action to accelerate pupil progress and drive up the quality of teaching.

A recent Ofsted inspection judged the Gloucester school as inadequate putting them into ‘special measures’. Staff and governors are now being supported by Gloucestershire County Council to implement a robust action plan to improve standards.

Ofsted acknowledged that by the time pupils reach their final year at Elmbridge (Year 2) they are consistently above the national average in reading, writing and mathematics, but raised concern about the time it takes the children to reach this standard.

They noted that pupils enjoy coming to school and feel safe and secure, are generally well-behaved and are polite, courteous and well-mannered.

Children have a good attendance record with high level of quality support given to families who have difficulty getting their child to school.

In addition, parents who responded to an online survey had a positive view of the school.

Ofsted highlighted the need for the school to: • Improve the quality of teaching so it is consistently good or better, ensuring teachers have higher expectations of what pupils can achieve and plan lessons around the children • Improve pupils’ achievement and accelerate progress in mathematics and writing, particularly in Year 1 • Improve leadership and management and establish an efficient and effective system for tracking the attainment and progress of pupils.

Headteacher, Emma Seville, said: “We are naturally very disappointed by the Ofsted’s judgement. However we are absolutely committed to improving and providing the best education for our pupils. “I have every confidence that with the support of governors, staff, and our parents, we will rapidly make the required changes, so that we can deliver the highest quality education to every one of our pupils so that they can achieve their best and we become a stronger school as a result.”

Fiona Collery, Chair of governors, said: “The governing body and school staff are deeply disappointed by the Ofsted judgement. However, we are working hard to address the issues highlighted by the report. We are confident that with the commitment of the staff and continued support of our parents, the school will speedily make the necessary improvements for our pupils to fulfil their potential.”

A team from the county council will now work closely with the school to address the issues identified by Ofsted.

Jane Lloyd-Davies, Head of education performance and intervention at Gloucestershire County Council, said: “We will continue to give the school all the support they need. We are working closely with the headteacher, staff and governors to make sure there is a clear and comprehensive improvement plan so that the quality of teaching is consistently good and, most importantly, the rate of pupil progress increases rapidly.”