Teachers at a Swindon primary school have been accused of not having high enough expectations for their pupils.

Ofsted inspectors have told staff at Liden Primary and Nursery that it needs improvement for the quality of education, pupil behaviour and leadership along with personal development and early years provision.

It was rated good at its last inspection in 2015.

In their report, inspectors said: “The curriculum is not planned and delivered sufficiently effectively to give pupils the depth of knowledge they need.

“Leaders know the quality of education has not been good enough.

“They are taking strong action to tackle weaknesses. Many pupils are catching up on the learning that they have missed in the past.”

They said behaviour in class was improving but was not yet good, although pupils played well together and were usually kind and thoughtful.

Staff were praised for running extra-curricular activities and taking pupils sailing or to museums.

But while leaders had brought in more consistency in teaching across the school, teachers did not always identify what pupils needed next and missed out important steps in children’s learning and pupils had not learned enough about subjects like science and technology.

Inspectors said: "There has been some chopping and changing of approaches to teaching, for example in mathematics. Pupils are gaining greater fluency in their maths now. However, leaders have not yet ensured that all teachers have strong mathematical subject knowledge.”

The report added: “Leaders have tackled a myriad of complex problems all at the same time. Now that many of these things are resolved, leaders’ work to improve the quality of education pupils receive is taking hold well. However, the quality of education is not yet good.”

At the nursery staff weren’t interacting enough with the toddlers to help their development and hindering their opportunities to practise speaking.

Areas that won praise included the school’s approach to early years reading, giving children a positive start in reception and the reduction of poor behaviour from pupils.

The Adver approached the school for a comment but did not receive one before going to press.