A RUNCORN primary school still has improvements to make, an official report says.

Runcorn All Saints CofE Primary School had an inspection by Ofsted last year that took the school down from a grading of good to requires improvement.

In a recent monitoring visit by the education watchdogs, it was determined that the school still had work to do to regain a higher grading.

The purpose of this report was to monitor the school’s progress and not to establish or grade the school’s overall effectiveness.

Inspector David Robinson highlighted two key actions that need to be taken.

He said the school should take further action to ‘identify the important knowledge that children in the Reception Year need to know’ to ensure they are ready for the Year 1 curriculum.

As well as it needing to address the ‘gaps in knowledge that some older pupils have as a result of the previous weaker curriculum’.

“Since the previous graded inspection, the school has appointed several new teachers,” Mr Robinson said.

“The deputy head teacher has left, and an acting assistant head teacher is now in post. Furthermore, a new chair of governors has been appointed to the governing body.”

He praised the school for ‘appropriate action taken’ to improve areas of the curriculum.

“These subject curriculums are ambitious for all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

“The curriculums are carefully ordered and outline the important knowledge that pupils should learn and revisit.”

The report concludes that these improvements mean pupils are building knowledge ‘more securely’.

Despite these adjustments, the same is not to be said for the reception class which the inspector said the curriculum is ‘less well developed’.

The school was praised for addressing gaps in learning ‘effectively’.

However the weakness from the previous curriculum, the report says, means some pupils still have gaps in their learning that have not been overcome.

“Consequently, these pupils are moved on to new concepts before their earlier learning is embedded,” Mr Robinson added.

Leaders of the primary school have gone through professional development, the report states.

And a new social, health and economic curriculum has been introduced.

To conclude, Mr Robinson noted: “The school is making the most of all the support available from the local authority and the diocese.

“This has helped the school to improve the quality of education that current pupils receive. The school has managed this support effectively to ensure that staff receive the right help at the right time.”