A PRIMARY school has been told it must improve after inspectors described pupil progress as “weak.”

Holland Park Primary School, in Clacton, came under fire after Government watchdog Ofsted found leaders had been “too slow” in identifying weaknesses and tackling them.

The school, which was given an overall “good” rating at its last inspection before becoming an academy, was told it “requires improvement” in areas including effectiveness of leadership, quality of teaching and outcomes for pupils.

It received “good” ratings for pupil behaviour, welfare and early years provision.

Holland Park Primary School is one of two academies operated by the Premier Learning Trust.

The second, Alton Park Junior School, has been placed into special measures by the watchdog after a damning report found the academy to be “inadequate.”

In the report into Holland Park, inspectors said: “Leaders and those responsible for governance have been too slow to identify weaknesses in provision and to tackle them robustly.

“The challenge of the lack of teaching staff together with the strong support needed by the other school in the multi-academy trust have proved too great for too long.

“The leaders and trustees of the trust are in the process of remedying the situation.”

The report added: “The curriculum is insufficiently well planned to ensure that pupils get a broad and rich experience of national curriculum subjects.

“The quality of teaching, while improving, is too variable.

“For several years, pupils’ progress at key stage two has been weak. Leaders’ response has been too slow.”

Inspectors reserved praise for the management of pupil behaviour and welfare and also added that pupils with special needs were supported well.

They also reported staff and parent moral to be high.

“Staff are proud to work at the school,” the report said.

“Ninety per cent of parents responding to Ofsted’s online questionnaire would recommend the school and a similar proportion believe the school is well-led and managed.

“While a few parents expressed justifiable concerns about stretch and challenge for high-attaining pupils, a typical praise was for: ‘teachers that care about helping children succeed and putting things in place for it to happen. They take the time to build great relationships with the children, it’s such a lovely school’.”

The Premier Learning Trust was formed three years ago and is based in Clacton. The former headteacher of Holland Park, Anthony Welch, is the chief executive of the trust.

In a letter to parents following the inspection, Holland Park headteacher Matthew Moseley said: “Although initially disappointed with the overall outcome I am very pleased that so many of the great things we do at Holland Park were recognised by the inspection team.

“The lead inspector told me at the conclusion of the inspection that we were very close to achieving a good grade overall.

“I would like to comment on what the inspectors said really stood out to them and that is the ethos and atmosphere within the school.

“This is something that cannot be manufactured or prepared quickly when the inspectors call – it is something that takes a lot of hard work and effort to develop and will only be in place when all members of the school community are pulling in the same direction with the same goal and expectations.

“We are all aware that there is so much more to a school than exam results and while we accept that our outcomes for children in Key Stage 2 are not good enough yet, we are making great strides to improve them and this has been commented on throughout the report."