THE head of a first and middle school says he will appeal against a decision by Ofsted inspectors that the school requires improvement.

Paul Kilgallon hit back after St Barnabas CE First and Middle School in Drakes Broughton, near Pershore, received the report.

In it, inspectors said leaders had not maintained previous good performance and progress and standards, particularly in maths, had declined.

The report said leaders were slow to stem this decline although urgent action was now being taken.

Inspectors felt leaders were not self-critical enough and teachers were not consistently assessing the children's progress.

The school was criticised for its previous ineffective subject leadership in maths, although inspectors said subject leaders for English and the newly appointed leader of maths were "enthusiastically" driving improvement.

Governors were also criticised for not challenging the school's leaders enough over the decline in standards.

Pupils were said not to be making consistently strong progress and were making faster progress in some year groups than others.

Overall those who reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths was smaller than that seen nationally in the 2016 Sats.

However, those pupils, now in year 7, had been targeted with extra funding and were catching up.

The Stonebow Road school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare was described as outstanding.

Staff knew the pupils well and put their well-being at the centre of everything they did.

Parents said they valued the school's support during difficult times for families.

The school's core values were described as having a powerful effect on the children who were also said to be well -behaved.

Inspectors found the early years provision was good with pre-school and reception staff working closely and successfully together.

Paul Kilgallon, the school's headteacher, said: "We are in the process of appealing.

"I feel the team didn't take into account the fact that we are a middle school.

"They based their judgement on a dip in year 6 maths scores over the past few years.

"We have addressed that.

"They didn't take into account the year 7 pupils in the school who leave our school at a level higher than expected nationally."

He added: "When the inspectors were in they told us they saw good teaching, good progress in lessons.

"We have a record of very high levels of education. Our children are well, happy and they go on to do well at high school and that is not reflected in the report."

Mr Kilgallon praised parents for their support and said they had gone out of their way to tell the school they felt Ofsted had got it wrong.