AN OXFORD primary school still ‘requires improvement’ despite progress being made, including an ‘ambitious curriculum’.

Bayards Hill Primary School in Headington was subject to a monitoring visit by Ofsted on June 23.

The inspection was the first the school had received since the coronavirus pandemic began, with the impact of Covid-19 taken into account.

In his report, the inspector – James Broadbridge – said activities that teachers set are not demanding enough.

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The report stated: “Leaders and those responsible for governance are taking effective action in order for the school to become a good school.”

However, the report added that Bayards Hill should take further action to ‘focus on the delivery of the curriculum plans so they are taught effectively’ and ‘improve the use of the outdoor provision to help children in Early Years develop across all areas of learning’.

Mr Broadbridge continued in his report: “The leaders I met with show a fighting spirit to improve this school.

“More recently, the pace of improvement has picked up and leaders are clearer about what they need to do.

“Action plans outline step by step how leaders will go about making changes.

“The newly designed curriculum is ambitious and well sequenced across many subjects.

“Within subjects, leaders have identified the essential knowledge and skills that pupils need to learn but have not yet broken that down into smaller steps to help teachers in planning a sequence of lessons.”

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The report continued: “The activities teachers set pupils are not demanding enough currently.

“Teachers’ expectations of what pupils can do are not high enough.

“In Early Years, children are not learning well through the outdoor provision.

“Activities do not develop children’s knowledge and skills across the different areas of learning.”

The report added that pupils were not learning a modern foreign language in Key Stage 2.

However, plans are underway to incorporate this subject into the school’s curriculum when pupils return next month.

A December 2019 inspection found the overall effectiveness of the school ‘requires improvement’ while the Early Years provision was deemed ‘inadequate’.

The report from that inspection stated: “Early Years provision is inadequate. While children receive strong provision in nursery, the curriculum in Reception is weak.

“The learning environment lacks stimulating resources. As a result, children’s imagination is not captured. Their natural desire to learn is not exploited.”

The report also mentioned that "too few children are secure enough in their phonics skills to read with fluency by the end of Reception."

Bayards Hill is part of the Community Schools Alliance Trust, which also includes Barton Park Primary School and Cheney School in Headington.