A HEREFORD primary school has lost its Ofsted rating of outstanding after 13 years and inspectors have told bosses they need to better manage pupils' behaviour.

Ofsted downgraded Marlbrook Primary School, in Green Croft to good, but said personal development and early years provision was outstanding.

The quality of education, behaviour and attitudes and leadership management were marked as good.

RELATED NEWS:

The school was last inspected 13 years ago, but the two inspectors said in their report that pupils have memorable experiences that they cherish at the school, which has 631 pupils aged between three and 11.

Pupils, who dress smartly and act sensibly, behave very well, the inspectors said, but occasionally there are incidents of bullying or unwelcome behaviour.

Want to stay up to date with all the latest news for your local area? It's easy, just sign up for our weekly email newsletter here and all the important stories that matter to you will be delivered straight to your inbox.

They said that pupils trust staff to sort this out, and staff act quickly. But, leaders' approach to recording some behaviour incidents was said to not be precise enough.

"This limits their ability to track incidents and analyse patterns of behaviour," the report of the November 2 and 3 inspection said, published on December 15 said.

"Leaders should further strengthen their approach to recording and analysing behaviour incidents."

Leaders, under executive headteacher Susan Jenkins, ensured that pupils were learning a broad range of subjects and the extra-curricular activities and educational visits were praised for being a "striking feature" at the school.

OTHER NEWS:

Inspectors Jonathan Leonard, Martina Abbott, Sue Parker and Sian Williams said curriculum coordinators had set out the key information that they expected pupils to know and remember in each subject.

Staff were also praised for how they checked how well pupils learnt material in lessons and over time.

But inspectors said teachers’ approach to checking what pupils know and remember was not yet fully developed in some subjects, and this meant they did not accurately check the progress that pupils make through all of the curriculum.

The teaching of reading was praised, as was the school's early years provision. Inspectors said this gave children and "excellent start to life at school".

The school's work to promote pupils' personal development was said to be "exceptional" and safeguarding was said to be effective.