A SCHOOL in a Worcestershire village has been put on special measures following a scathing Ofsted report.

Leigh and Bransford Primary School was criticised in the inspectors' report as providing an unsatisfactory quality of education, with pupils in the Foundation stage in particular starting with above average standards and subsequently under-achieving.

The Evening News ran an initial report on the findings of the two-day inspection in June in yesterday's paper.

The 97-pupil school, in Hoopers Close, Leigh Sinton was also slammed for unsatisfactory leadership skills and teaching.

"The headteacher has frequently had to cope with a rapidly changing staffing situation and this has meant his energies have been channelled away from leading the school with firm direction," the report said.

Standards in the 2003 National tests were described as below average in reading and writing in year two - but above average in mathematics.

And the four-man inspection team said the school had made unsatisfactory progress since it was last inspected in 1998, due to the headteacher having to manage repeated staffing difficulties at short notice.

Inspectors

However, inspectors said the proportion of Year 6 pupils reaching level five was above average overall.

And provision for pupils with special needs was said to be good, with youngsters also forming good relationships with each other.

"Not all staff have shown steadfast commitment to the school's aims and objectives", the report reads. "Assessment, target setting and tracking, monitoring and evaluation are all inconsistent and flawed processes."

The report comes as a blow to the school, which was celebrating its best ever set of Year 6 SATS results before the inspection.

But headteacher Peter Gill said the inspection had come at a time of great change in the school, with several staff leaving, and he was aware of the problems.

"Staff and governors are not complacent about the inspection findings and are keen to fully put into place the changes needed to secure Leigh and Bransford as one of the outstanding schools in Malvern," he added.

n Leigh and Bransford is a small village school, with two-thirds of the 50 boys and 47 girls living in Leigh Sinton and the surrounding areas.

There are an above average proportion of pupils with special educational needs - the majority of those with moderate learning difficulties.

The School Inspections Act 1996 defines a school requiring special measures as "failing or likely to fail to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education."