The headteacher of a Lowestoft primary school has pledged to continue to 'work extremely hard' to improve standards after an Ofsted inspection highlighted areas needing improvement.

Mark Prentice, head at Woods Loke Primary, said it was his aim was for the school to be rated as 'good' once more – with the school following its motto of 'reaching for the stars'.

Following a two-day inspection in March, Ofsted rated the school as 'requiring improvement' – a downgrade from 'good' last time in January 2013.

But Mr Prentice said that the school was heading in the right direction – and said that a 'very robust raising achievement plan' had already had a 'good impact' on raising standards.

Wood Loke Primary, in Butley Drive, Oulton Broad, was inspected by Dellis Smith, lead inspector from Ofsted on March 17 and 18, with three out of five areas requiring improvement.

The early years provision at the school and the behaviour and safety of pupils were both rated as 'good'.

Mr Prentice said: 'I thought that the Ofsted findings showed all the hard work that we have put in place, and this is reflected in the many positive comments found throughout the report.

'I am very proud of everybody – the teachers, teaching

assistants, office staff, cooks, parents and governors.

'The children at our school are amazing – they have such a positive 'can do' attitude towards their work.

'They are polite and very well behaved and really enjoy coming to school.'

Now the school - which has 500 pupils all aged between three and 11 - has been rated as 'requires improvement', it means that Woods Loke will receive a full inspection within two years.

Mr Prentice said: 'The governors and myself have to act at a more rapid pace to improve teaching and learning.

'However since September we have had a very robust raising achievement plan (RAP) that Ofsted recognised has already had a good impact on raising standards.

'We are all confident that

we will achieve better results than last year, after our year-two and year-six pupils have completed their SATS in May and June this year.

'When we are next inspected, we aim to be rated overall as

good.'

He added: 'Naturally, we have areas to improve, which were highlighted in the report, and we will continue to work hard with all school stakeholders to address each one of them.'

WHAT OFSTED SAID

Points raised by the lead inspector into why Woods Loke Primary School required improvement included:

? Overall leadership requires improvement because senior leaders, including governors, have not taken a rigorous approach to improving teaching, learning and achievement.

? Not all subject leaders are consistent in driving improvements to the quality of teaching to bring about necessary improvement.

? The quality of teaching is variable because pupils are not always given work that stretches them.

? Leaders do not use information from assessment to track and monitor the progress of the most-able pupils.

? Although achievement is improving, results in 2014 in both Key Stages One and Two were below average.

? The quality of feedback in lessons and in books is inconsistent across the school.