Ofsted placed Maple Grove Infants School into special measures after inspections in September and November found leadership, quality of teaching, pupils’ achievements and behaviour and safety of pupils inadequate.

School leaders “have let standards fall without intervening to stop this,” concludes the Ofsted inspection.

“They have not done enough to tackle weaknesses in achievement or the quality of teaching. Governors have not fulfilled their roles and responsibilities. They do not hold school leaders to account for the standard of education, ensure that key policies are in place or regularly check the procedures for safeguarding.”

At its last inspection in 2011 the school was rated ‘good’ but has plummeted to ‘inadequate’ in nearly every category. The only light in the report is early years provision where inspectors agreed it “requires improvement”.

Ofsted believes pupils are not being taught the basics of reading and this, they say, affects their enjoyment, particularly for weaker readers.

“Teachers do not have high enough expectations of what their pupils can achieve,” says the report. Consequently progress is poor “and current attainment is below average. Progress is particularly weak for the more able pupils.”

The criticisms extend to some classes where “low level disruption and inappropriate behaviour lead to pupils losing valuable learning time.”

And poor teaching too means pupils do not get a clear picture of their areas of strength and weaknesses which in turn “has led to a rapid decline in standards, particularly in mathematics and literacy. The school is not meeting its statutory requirement to give parents relevant curriculum information on its website”.

The school has 260 pupils with few pupils of minority ethnic heritage, says the report, and only a small percentage of pupils speak English as an additional language.

In one part of the report Ofsted inspectors say that “pupils make too little progress in mathematics and literacy because there are so many times when they simply do not understand what they are asked to do”.

And Ofsted also criticises the school for having nowhere to “log any incidents of racist or discriminatory behaviour, and there are no policies for the prevention of racism or bullying”.

Are you a parent of a pupil at Maple Grove? Tell us what you think. Email the editor with your views to john.elworthy@archant.co.uk