Burrowmoor Primary school has been advised to not employ newly qualified teachers after a report said it had not done enough to pull itself out of special measures.

The main weakness is that teachers “lack subject knowledge, particularly in mathematics and do not have enough expectations of what constitutes good teaching and learning,” a report by Ofsted said.

The school has also been accused of “moving pupils on so that the curriculum is covered rather than ensuring that the pupils have learned what has been taught.”

There are 35 teaching assistants in the school but the inspector said: “It is often unclear what their impact on learning is.”

Of those there are 16 who work on a one to one basis but the report said leaders have not observed their work or checked the children’s work to check they are making better progress for having intense support.

The school was last inspected eight months ago and since then the head teacher has left and the deputy head Carrie Henderson has stepped up to the role.

A number of other teachers have left the school and been replaced, the report said.

The latest report by Ofsted inspector Tim Bristow said: “Senior and middle leaders do not have the capacity to improve teaching and learning because of a lack of experience and training.”

Standards at the end of Year 6 dropped to below the national average, however, in Year 1 the phonics standards were higher.

“It is evident in school that the quality of work and the progress made by pupils varies widely depending on which class they are in.

“Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs are over-dependent on adult support.”

At break time pupils said there are problems on a regular basis when they played football because they said nobody was there to preside over the game.

Mr Bristow said: “Leaders and managers are not taking effective action towards the removal of special measures.”