THE borough's largest primary school has been placed under special measures by Ofsted because it is “failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education”.

Woodside School in Wood Street, Walthamstow, was found by the education watchdog to have inadequate teaching and leadership following an inspection in March.

The school was rated “good” in its last Ofsted report in November 2008 but has since undergone an expansion, and currently teaches more than 860 children.

Nearly all parents who responded to a questionnaire by Ofsted said they felt their children were making good progress, but inspectors said their findings did not support this.

They said much of the teaching was weak and pupil achievement unsatisfactory, with more rigour needed in addressing both issues.

Ofsted also judged that the school's capacity to improve was inadequate.

The report said: “The school is not satisfactory because teaching does not promote pupils’ learning well enough to raise their achievement.

“School leaders, managers and members of the governing body have not ensured that specific priorities for development have been identified and swiftly addressed”.

It added: “Teaching is inadequate because it does not enable pupils to make sufficiently rapid gains in their learning, especially for reading, writing and mathematics.

“Expectations are not always high enough and work is not well matched to pupils’ specific needs.

“Individual targets and feedback on pupils’ work are not used consistently to make clear what they need to do to improve.”

But inspectors also said that the school was a safe and caring environment where relations were “positive and friendly”, with most pupils having a positive attitude to learning.

The special measures will include close and regular monitoring of the school by Ofsted until improvements are made.

In a joint statement, the school and its governng body said: "The vast majority of children at The Woodside School - including the large number with special needs and those in the early stages of acquiring English - are making the expected progress, but not a high enough percentage to satisfy Ofsted's new and tougher inspection framework.

"Since the inspection, the head teacher and staff have put in place a whole variety of strategies in addition to those already in place to bring about rapid improvement in the school's results so that we can meet the tight deadlines in Ofsted's recommendations.

"We are also enlarging the senior leadership team and seeking external support to meet the demands of a school that is growing very quickly in response to the shortage of primary school places in the borough."

This week the council cabinet approved plans to give Woodside £1.7million to help it expand from four to six entry-level forms.

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