A primary school has lost its ‘good’ rating after significant changes in staff led to a decline in academic standards.

Crow Lane Primary and Foundation Stage School at Milnsbridge was judged ‘good’ following a 2014 Ofsted inspection but now ‘requires improvement’ after inspectors visited last month.

The report praised the school for its strengths, saying: “After a period of considerable staffing change, leaders have now established more settled staffing arrangements...the quality of teaching is improving. In turn, progress for pupils is quickening.”

Ofsted inspectors have drawn up a list of things the school should do in order to improve further. It said an external review should be undertaken to assess how leadership and management may be improved.

The report noted that staffing changes had affected standards.

The report published by OFSTED

* Standards in English and maths by the end of Year 6 are not high enough

* Leaders’ plans for improvement are not ambitious enough

* The governing body has not taken effective action to prevent the decline in pupils’ achievement

* The quality of teaching is improving but is still variable

* Phonics teaching, while improving, is not effective enough in supporting pupils who have fallen behind

* Strategies to improve attendance have not had enough impact for disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs

“The school has been through an unsettled period. Significant staffing and leadership changes have hindered the pace of the school’s improvement.

“Staffing is now settled and leadership arrangements are beginning to speed up the pace of change, Progress is beginning to quicken for current pupils.”

The report added: “Turbulence in staffing has led to variability in the quality of teaching over time. Although improving, teaching is not yet securely good.”

Inspectors also said that the behaviour of pupils requires improvement, adding: “Classrooms are mainly calm but pupils report disruption which sometimes interferes with learning.”

Crow Lane School, Milnsbridge.

They said that “exclusions have not reduced enough”.

Leaders in Early Years provision were not ambitious enough for children’s achievement and teaching in maths was not challenging enough.

Headteacher Martin Vayro said the school was “heading in the right direction”.

He said Ofsted had recognised that the school had identified the right priorities and the need to “sharpen up how we measure the progress and success of what we are doing”.

He added: “One important point to note is that we feel that the judgement of Early Years is not the fairest reflection of what happens for our youngest learners and does not match our own view.”

Mr Vayro said a recent visit by local authority officials “confirmed that in fact teachers in Reception know the children very well, make accurate judgements and provide a good quality start to their education.”

He said: “Although disappointed with the outcome of the visit, it is in line with our own judgement of where we are and please be assured that we are heading in the right direction, as the report identifies, and will continue to drive up standards of progress and attainment for every child at Crow Lane.”