Romford school makes improvements but remains in special measures

A Romford school which was rated inadequate last year has been rated satisfactory in its latest monitoring visit.

Crowlands Primary School, in London Road, was given the lowest score available by Ofsted inspectors last May.

Inspectors put the school into special measures and it will remain under council control until it has improved sufficiently.

But in a report published last week the new executive head teacher Garry Nott was praised for his strong leadership. He has increased his time at the school to half the working week instead of one day a week.

Inspectors said: “He has created a culture of openness and improvement in which issues about professional development and improving the quality of learning and teaching can be discussed effectively.”

Governors have also taken training and increased the rigour with which they hold the school to account.

Inspectors said there was evidence of pupils’ learning accelerating since the last visit, but they were making uneven progress in Year 3.

The report said: “Mathematics remains a concern and it is too early to see the impact of very recent initiative to tackle pupils’ underachievement in this area.”

They also noticed that pupils feel happy, safe and enjoy lessons.

The school had previously been told to improve pupils’ attendance. Inspectors noticed during the March visit that the school has now made good progress and is following up the first day of absence with a phone call.

“A range of procedures are in place to encourage parents to send their children to school regularly.

“Particularly noteworthy is the reduction in the levels of persistent absences. This is due to rigorous monitoring.”

Inspectors found the school had taken “rigorous” steps to improve the quality of teaching and learning. Most of the teaching was satisfactory, yet some was still inadequate and needed improving.