Teachers at Good Shepherd Catholic Primary School in Downham, on the border of Lewisham and Bromley, were criticised for failing to consistently manage students’ behaviour in a report by the education watchdog published on Monday (March 3).
Inspectors who visited the school on Moorside Road over two days at the end of January said some pupils were ‘unsettled’ and ‘unfocused’ during lessons, although they noted most pupils behaved well.
The school, which was previously rated ‘good’ overall when single word overall judgements were still being handed out, was this time given a grade of ‘requires improvement’ in four out of five areas: education quality, behaviour, leadership and early years provision.
It was handed a rating of ‘good’ for personal development.
The report said: “Expectations for learning behaviour are not routinely consistent. As a result, some pupils lose focus during learning activities and do not complete important work. Staff must promote consistently high expectations to ensure positive learning behaviour for all.”
It continued: “The school has introduced new curriculum resources in many subjects. New content is ambitious.
“However, staff do not understand it well. The school has not adapted new content to take into account pupils’ prior knowledge.
“Teaching and support do not focus well on building pupils’ knowledge over time. Pupils’ achievement is mixed. In some aspects of mathematics, pupils achieve well below national averages.”
The school, which teaches 231 pupils aged three to 11, was praised by inspectors for effectively identifying kids with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Despite this, Ofsted noted that support provided to these students lacked focus.
The education watchdog added that ‘a significant number’ of disadvantaged children and students with SEND were too regularly absent.
It acknowledged the school monitored attendance and provided support, but said the school failed to evaluate whether this was effective.
Lisa De Souza, Head Teacher at Good Shepherd Primary School, said the Ofsted report recognised strengths, as well as weaknesses that the school was working on.
She said: “We had already introduced new ways of teaching subjects and topics which Ofsted recognised as positive and we are now seeing the impact of these initiatives.
“We shared our action plan with parents at the parents meeting we organised on Monday evening (March 3) to reassure parents and to answer any concerns or questions they may have about teaching or practices in the school, which have been highlighted by the Ofsted report.
“The action plan was well received by parents who had questions around what we are doing to address these points and how we plan to monitor improvement. We are confident that Ofsted will recognise the progress we are making when they come back to visit us.”
