“Urgent” improvements are needed in the quality of education at a school.

Sidlesham Primary School, Chichester, has been rated "requires improvement" following an inspection from Ofsted in June.

The school, in Keynor Lane, was rated good at its previous inspection in 2018.

Ofsted inspectors said Sidlesham is “emerging from a period of leadership instability” and that the appointment of a new headteacher in recent months has brought “greater stability”.

They said the new headteacher has “ambitious” plans for improving the quality of education.

However, inspectors said the way the curriculum is taught is “inconsistent” and the way it is designed and delivered means pupils are not achieving as well as they should.

They also raised concerns that persistent absences at the school are too high for “too many” pupils, including some who are more disadvantaged.

“Leaders recognise the urgent improvements that are needed in the quality of education that pupils receive,” said the report.

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“They are highly ambitious for what pupils can and should achieve and are taking quick action to rectify problems with the quality of education that pupils receive. However, while the new curriculum is being prepared, there is not currently clear oversight of how well pupils are learning across all subjects.

“The school’s curriculum is not designed so that all pupils will learn the full knowledge and skills that they should. This is because the curriculum has not been organised appropriately for the school’s mixed-year group classes. Additionally, in some subjects, there is a lack of clarity in what pupils should learn and when.

“New leaders recognise this and are taking steps to ensure that the curriculum is more coherently planned and sequenced.”

Inspectors said the way reading is taught has improved recently and praised the “calm and orderly” atmosphere in the school.

They said children are happy at the school and pupils and their parents enjoy being part of the “tight-knit community”.

“Pupils love their school, feeling safe and very well cared for by staff,” said the report.

“Strong relationships exist between pupils across year groups. At break times, pupils socialise widely, including others in their games.

“Pupils behave well and are polite and respectful. They enjoy being rewarded for their successes in weekly celebration assemblies. Diversity is valued with one pupil summing this up by saying, ‘At Sidlesham we take differences as positives. It would be boring if we were just the same’."