A Whittlesey school uses a curriculum that is “not fit for purpose and does not prepare pupils adequately for life in modern Britain” according to Ofsted.

New Road Primary has seen “turbulence in senior leadership” which means that “leaders have not tackled deficiencies in teaching, learning and assessment,” according to an inspector.

The result is that the school is inadequate in areas of leadership, quality of teaching and pupil outcomes and needs improvement in personal development of pupils and early years provision.

Inspector Nick Butt said that pupils were under achieving and standards at key stage two were too low and not improving.

“The school does not prepare pupils well enough for the next stage of their education,” he said.

“Attendance has been too low, especially for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs, and pupils known to be eligible for free school meals.”

The new executive head teacher Robert Litten, who had been in post for just three weeks when Ofsted visited, has a good understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses and has begun to carry out improvements, said Mr Butt, who noticed that pupils are polite, courteous and behave well in the playground and around the school.

Links with the partner school in the Learning Trust have reduced over the past year and so staff have not been able to share best practice or support one another in making judgements about pupils’ learning, he added.

“The quality of the support pupils receive varies greatly. Some teaching assistants lack confidence in managing behaviour and in meeting pupils’ needs.”

Reading skills were low across the school and the amount of Year 1 pupils reaching the required standard in phonics this year fell to 50%.