Kingsbridge Primary School has been rated as ‘Requires Improvement’ by Ofsted, but is praised for the “strong sense of togetherness”.

Five inspectors from the school standards agency, Ofsted, spent two days at Kingsbridge Community Primary in April.

They marked the “personal development, behaviour and welfare” and “early years provision” as ‘Good’, but said that the school ‘Requires Improvement’ in “effectiveness of leadership and management”, “quality of teaching, learning and assessment” and “outcomes for pupils”.

In their report, which has just been published, lead inspector Matt Middlemore concludes: “Children get off to a flying start in the early years and are well prepared for their learning in Year 1.

“Some teaching is very strong. Where teaching is most effective, teachers skilfully respond to the needs of their pupils. Where this happens, pupils make better progress.

“A real ‘buzz for learning’ exists in the early years. The proportion of children achieving a good level of development by the end of Reception is above the national average and has been sustained consistently over the last three years.

“Pupils’ progress varies in different subjects and across year groups. Disadvantaged pupils, including the most able disadvantaged pupils, do not always achieve as well as they should.

“The quality of teaching varies considerably across a range of subjects. Teachers’ expectations of pupils are often too low. In particular, the most able pupils, including those who are also disadvantaged, are not challenged effectively. As a result, their progress is slowed.”

Mr Middlemore said that the school is a “caring environment”, and that “equality of opportunity is a real strength”. He added: “The headteacher and senior leaders are determined that every child should be given the opportunity to achieve their very best. There is a strong sense of togetherness.

“Relationships between adults and pupils are warm, affirming and based on mutual respect. The atmosphere in nearly all classrooms is purposeful and lively. Teachers are swift to offer praise and encouragement and pupils respond well and are keen to do their best.”

“The atmosphere in nearly all classrooms is purposeful and lively. Pupils respond well and are keen to do their best,” he says. “The school provides a broad and balanced curriculum that offers many opportunities for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

“The behaviour of pupils is good. Pupils have positive attitudes to their learning and towards each other,” he says.

Before the inspection, the school joined a partnership with eleven other schools to drive improvement across the all the schools.

Kingsbridge headteacher, Chris Slaughter, said: “We are a team of six headteachers and executive heads, including two National Leaders of Education, who are sharing their wealth of experience to support each other.

“We are all schools who wish to retain our individuality to serve our own communities, control our own budgets and work collaboratively to strive for better experiences and outcomes for our children.

“There is no financial implication; this is one of the reasons that we have formed the partnership.

“Budgets are being cut so we want to ensure that our budget is spent on the children rather than a hierarchy. Our first meetings have been very positive in starting to identify ways in which we can effectively support each other and improve the life chances of our children.”