A SCHOOL in York has suffered a setback after the quality of its standards has fallen according to the education watchdog.

An Ofsted inspector found St Barnabas CE School, on Jubilee Terrace,‘requires improvement’, dropping from‘good’ when it had a last full inspection in 2014.

In the report, Rebecca Clayton said the school required improvement in two areas: effectiveness of leadership and management and the quality of teaching, learning and assessment for pupils; which had consequently led to a reduction in the outcome of pupils development, behaviour and welfare.

She said: “Pupils’ progress is not consistent across year groups and subjects. The proportion of pupils reaching the higher standard of learning is below average by the end of key stage 2.

“The quality of teaching, learning and assessment is improving, but remains variable.

“Sometimes lessons in maths do not sufficiently challenge the most able pupils.

“Teachers expectations of pupils attitudes to learning are also not high enough. As a result, there is a low level of disruption in some lessons.

“During the inspection, many pupils were well behaved, but a low level of disruption also occurred. These instances of disruption were dealt with effectively by adults, but pupils say that this is a frequent occurrence.”

The report did commend the schools early years provision learning and that leaders are working hard to enrich the curriculum for pupils.

It said: 'Provision in early years is good. Children make a good start to their learning and make good progress as the learning environment is both exciting and purposeful.

'Leaders have worked hard to develop their curriculum subject areas to enrich it for pupils.

'Teachers and teaching assistants have built strong relationships with pupils, resulting in pupils being confident and enjoying school.'

In a letter to parents, head teacher, Karen Boardman, said: “The report confirms that children are safe in school, relationships between staff and pupils are strong and that safeguarding procedures are effective. Pupils say that they feel safe and they told the inspectors that ‘if they are concerned, they can talk to adults who will take action and help them.’

“The report states that the new approaches that we have put in place are already beginning to have a positive impact and leading to improvements in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. We will continue to work to embed these approaches.

"We are aware that some parents have areas of concern regarding behaviour and these are already being addressed. We will be reviewing our behaviour policy and hope to have parent input and support with this, working in partnership to ensure high standards of behaviour.”