A 'good' primary school's rating “might not be as high” if a new graded inspection was carried out today, Ofsted has said.

The education watchdog visited Dame Tipping Church of England Primary School in North Road, Havering-atte-Bower on January 31 for an ungraded inspection.

In a recently published report, inspectors found that leaders at the school “are developing an ambitious and broad curriculum for all” but that pupils’ learning in some subjects “is uneven”.

At the time of Ofsted’s last short inspection of the primary school in October 2016, Dame Tipping was rated ‘good’.

But this year, inspectors said that “evidence gathered suggests that the inspection grade might not be as high if a graded inspection were carried out now”.

As a result, inspectors are recommending that the school receives a graded inspection in the next one to two years.

The most recent inspection report said that “not all weaker readers receive the support they need”.

This was in addition to the watchdog’s judgment that “in some subjects, leaders have not identified clearly enough the most important content that pupils should learn” or “checked how well pupils have followed the curriculum”.

But the report also stated that “pupils are proud to belong to this caring and welcoming school community” and that they, “behave well” and “are enthusiastic and keen to learn”.  

Julian Dutnall, chief executive of LIFE Education Trust which runs the school, said: “We know that the report identifies some areas for the school to improve, particularly related to reading and the curriculum and that inspectors will return within two years to check that these have been addressed and that the school remains good.

“We are pleased that these areas are ones that our new executive head and Head of School have already started working on and we can already see great improvements.  They are supported by hard working diligent colleagues keen to ensure great progress for all pupils.  

“We are confident that our next full school inspection will be extremely positive and that this will be a fitting tribute in 2024 when the school will celebrate its 300th birthday."