A primary school in Bootle has been told it is still failing two years after it was put into special measures.
Ofsted inspectors said Holy Spirit Catholic Primary School in Poulsom Drive was not making adequate progress towards the removal of special measures after an inspection visit in June this year.
In a report published on Tuesday (July 20), inspectors said the school’s leaders “were not taking effective action towards the removal of special measures” and both the school’s improvement plan and Sefton Council’s action plan were “not fit for purpose”.
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Holy Spirit was placed in special measures following an inspection in May 2019 that rated the school “inadequate”. The decision followed a series of poor Ofsted inspections that told the school it needed to improve in 2014 and 2016.
This month’s report found there had been “considerable turbulence” in the school’s leadership since the last inspection, with the current interim headteacher Clare Roberts being the second person to take up the role.
Her appointment followed the resignation of controversial head teacher Marcella Armstrong towards the end of 2020, reportedly after staff threatened industrial action.
Mrs Armstrong had previously left St Margaret Mary’s Catholic Junior School in Huyton while under investigation after a number of unusual projects at the school, but was still recommended for the Holy Spirit job by the Archdiocese of Liverpool.
The “turmoil” at Holy Spirit had had “a profound impact on the progress that leaders have made in addressing the weaknesses at the school”, the inspectors said.
Although they acknowledged that the new leadership team had “accelerated” the pace of improvement, the inspectors noted that “many of the endemic shortcomings identified in the 2019 inspection remain firmly in place”.
While reading and maths have improved, the inspectors found “system weaknesses” in other subjects such as history and geography, with staff not clear on what pupils were expected to learn in each year group.
Criticising the council’s statement of action, the inspectors said: “Ofsted judged the local authority’s statement of action to be not fit for purpose. This is because it does not indicate well enough how it will support the school in the next stage of its journey.
“The local authority has not reviewed and updated its plans to support the school in a timely manner.”
However, there were some more positive findings, including a significant improvement in behaviour and a stronger reading curriculum.
A Sefton Council spokesperson said: “We acknowledge the issues raised in the letter from Ofsted, and accept that there are still improvements that need to be made at Holy Spirit School.
“However the council are working very closely with the school leadership team, the new governing body and interim executive headteacher, and already significant improvements have been made across the school.
“The council, the school and the archdiocese are committed to continue working together to further support the school’s improvement journey.”
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