A troubled Church of England primary school in Huddersfield is not moving forward fast enough, according to Ofsted.

Dryclough CE (VC) Infant School, Crosland Moor, was graded as Requires Improvement for the second time running in February 2015.

Inspectors criticised the uneven quality of teaching and learning across the school, rates of pupil progress, distracted pupils, and praise given by teachers for sub-standard work.

Now, following a recent monitoring inspection, Ofsted have demanded urgent action.

In a letter to acting headteachers Monica Best and Julie Dickinson they said: “Senior leaders and governors are not taking effective action to tackle the areas requiring improvement... plans are not sharply focused on rapidly bringing about improvement.”

Ofsted has demanded that the school take: “immediate action to ensure, as a matter of urgency, that all the recommendations from a review of governance are implemented so that governors have a clear understanding of what the school needs to do to get to good and what part they need to play in helping it get there.”

It has also demanded that the school improvement plan be altered to give more detail about the progress that all pupils can be expected to make, including targets, and that leaders should check agreed actions are being carried out in the classroom.

Dryclough C.E. (V.C.) Infant School, Dryclough Rd, Crosland Moor

Ofsted said that pupil behaviour had improved and the two acting headteachers had acted made some progress: “They have transformed the culture within the school so that teachers work collaboratively, share their practice and accept professional challenge more readily than they did previously.

“As a result, the school has a calm and purposeful atmosphere, where staff are eager to improve their practice.

“However, some improvements are fragile because the acting headteachers, other senior leaders and governors are not checking sufficiently robustly how agreed actions and policies are improving provision.”

Governors came in for criticism as they do not check for themselves exactly what is going on in the school. Dryclough is currently consulting on merging with the local junior and nursery schools.

The acting headteachers will continue until new leaders take over, following the outcome of the proposed merger. One acting headteacher is on long-term leave.