School gets report boost after a year

A primary school has been told it is improving, nearly a year after it was placed in special measures.

Avenue Primary, in Clarendon Park, Leicester, was classed as failing to provide an adequate education for pupils in March last year.

The school's first monitoring inspection took place in September last year, weeks after new head teacher Nicola Kandola took over.

At the time, inspectors said the school was still not improving.

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But now, following its second monitoring inspection by Ofsted last month, staff have been told that it is making "reasonable progress".

Inspectors have said improvements are taking place, with the help of the new head, the governing body and council support.

Mrs Kandola said: "We're really pleased with the direction the school is going. Everyone is working together to drive it forward, including governors and parents who are very supportive.

"Teachers are sharing best practice with one another and there's lots of peer-to-peer support. In addition, the city council has also been very supportive and the school is teamed with Marriott Primary, which has gone through special measures.

"Its head teacher, Catherine Stretton, is acting as a mentor to me and it's a partnership that's really helping.

"Like everything, new practices take time to embed themselves but this school is packed with potential and I'm sure that, in due course, we will no longer be in this category."

Inspectors said progress in reading, writing and maths had accelerated and overall teaching had improved.

They said children learned and played well together and were involved in a broad range of activities to keep them stimulated.

In addition, they said well-organised phonics lessons for younger children were contributing to their progress.

The report praised Mrs Kandola, saying that she had added to improvements in teaching and was demonstrating strong leadership.

Inspectors also said the English curriculum was improving and the governing body was becoming a strength of the school.

Councillor Vi Dempster, assistant city mayor for children, young people and schools, said: "The commitment to drive forward improvements is clear and I'm pleased the inspectors have recognised that.

"There are still challenges and we'll continue to support the school in addressing these.

"We want Avenue Primary to be rightly recognised as a good school and I'm confident that by working together we will achieve that.

"In the meantime, I want to thank staff, governors, parents and pupils for their hard work and support."

Inspectors said to keep getting better, the school must continue to improve all teaching and set suitably challenging targets for children and monitor their progress.

Staff were also told to make sure they marked work clearly and that pupils knew what they had to do to improve.

They also said children's attendance had to get better.