TEACHERS and governors at a primary school rated as ‘outstanding’ four years ago are appealing after it was placed in special measures.

King’s Stanley Primary School’s latest Ofsted report, published on Thursday, said teaching was ‘not good enough’, ‘attainment had declined’ and ‘governors had failed to challenge the school leaders effectively’.

Further criticism was levelled at Key Stage two teaching, with inspectors saying that ‘many teachers do not stretch the more able pupils sufficiently to enable them to achieve their best’.

However despite an overall rating of inadequate, inspectors found some areas worthy of praise.

Behaviour was rated as good and children were said to have ‘good attitudes to learning’.

The reception class was also praised for providing children with a good start to their education.

On receiving the draft report after the inspection in May headteacher Mrs Barbara Deacon, backed by the Governing Body, immediately appealed to Ofsted.

The appeal challenged the accuracy of the report and in a separate letter complained at what teachers, governors and pupils felt was the ‘aggressive tone’ of the inspection.

Mrs Deacon called the report ‘misleading’ and said it failed to mention the school’s good standards in science, IT, and religious education.

"Personally I feel as if the inspectors had made up their minds based on the data and nothing we did or said would alter that," said Mrs Deacon.

Ofsted’s latest School Data Dashboard for King’s Stanley School in Church Street, shows that its pupils are in the top 20 per cent of all schools in the country for their writing and in the top 40 per cent for maths.

Staff and governors held a meeting with parents on Wednesday night to explain the report and its meaning and to present a plan of action.

Brian Jenkinson, vice chairman of the governors, said: "It was clear at the meeting that parents unanimously supported the school.

"As part of the inspection process, parents are invited to participate in a survey and 98 per cent of parents said they would recommend the school to other parents and yet this did not find its way into the report.

Darren Parris, a parent governor said: "There are concerns that this inspection had a political agenda and was more about meeting the national targets for converting schools to academies set by Michael Gove rather than assessing the school to give a true reflection of its work and achievements.

"We had felt that there were no advantages for the children in becoming an academy but it looks as if they might not have that choice now."

The school is now awaiting a decision on the appeal and will face further inspections in the new school year to ensure they are taking the necessary actions to improve.