A PRIMARY school in Herefordshire has been praised for how safe its pupils feel, but has been told the quality of education could be better.

Ofsted inspectors visited Leintwardine Endowed CE Primary School, in the north of the county, and said it could be downgraded from its rating of good during its next graded inspection.

Visiting the Watling Street school to carry out an ungraded inspection, Kerry Rochester and Justine Lomas, from Ofsted, said the school was welcoming and at the heart of its community.

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They also praised pupils' behaviour, and how highly they spoke about residential trips.

"One pupil talked about how he conquered his fear of heights while on a residential visit and said he came back feeling ‘proud and confident’," the report said.

"Pupils enjoy being school ambassadors and setting up lunchtime clubs for other pupils."

The pair said pupils did learn well "in some subjects", but the "quality of education was not as strong in other subjects".

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In some subjects, such as mathematics and history, the curriculum was well thought out, they said, but leaders knew more work was needed in others, such as geography and science.

Inspectors said leaders at the school, with 82 pupils aged between four and 11, had a good relationship with staff and also valued pupils’ wider development.

They said: "For example, all pupils are given the opportunity to learn to swim. They enjoy having the opportunity to attend yoga, football and netball clubs."

Ofsted gives primary school three areas to improve

Safeguarding was also said to be effective, but Ofsted gave three points where the school, led by headteacher Nicola Gorry, needed to improve to avoid being downgraded from good – a rating it has held since 2013.

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Ofsted said the reading curriculum was not well structured and teachers were unclear about what they were expected to teach and when they should teach it. This means that pupils’ learning does not build throughout the year or from one year to the next.

In the report of the November 2 visit, published on December 7, Ofsted said the phonics curriculum was also said to be "not well delivered", with teachers’ assessment strategies not highlighting struggling children.

The inspectors also said that leaders’ systems to check on the delivery of the curriculum were at the early stages of development so they were unsure of the impact.