Littlehampton school under special measures

St Catherine's Catholic Primary School, in Highdown Drive, was inspected on June 7 and the report, which has only just been published, concluded that the school did not provide a satisfactory education and its 149 pupils were not learning quickly enough.

The school's headteacher Adam Lenkiewicz is away on long-term sick leave and, in his absence, locum headteachers Pat Fuller and Jill Howell have been brought in to work alongside deputy headteacher Ann Ramiz to tackle the issues highlighted in the report.

One parent told the Gazette: "The parents and children have been hugely let down, not just by the management of the school, but also by the governers and Ofsted, for allowing this school to go unchecked for so long.

"As a parent, I am very concerned that the school has left our children without 'basic skills to prepare them well for the next stage in their education or the world of work', as stated in the report."

Although the Ofsted inspectors identified some strengths at the school, including improvements made to the reception year since the last inspection in June, 2000, and the polite and friendly nature of the children, its overall effectiveness was deemed to be inadequate, as was its teaching, leadership and management.

Out of 20 inspection judgements that Ofsted marked the school on, just one was deemed to be good, 10 were satisfactory and nine were inadequate.

The report also said the school had not taken effective steps to promote improvement since the last inspection and did not have the capacity to make any necessary improvements.

In order for the school to tackle these problems, staff, governors and specialists from West Sussex County Council are working on an improvement plan.

A council spokeswoman said the plan will focus on four key areas, as highlighted by the Ofsted report.

She said it would be designed to help pupils learn more quickly in English, maths and science, to meet children's differing needs more effectively, to have clear plans showing how the school will be improved and to improve attendance.

Parents met with staff at a special feedback meeting at the school last night (Wednesday) to discuss the report and the improvement plan.

After reading the report's initial findings, the school's chairman of governors at the time of the inspection, Ian Thornhill, said: "I am pleased that the report highlighted some positive attributes of our school.

"The governors and staff are committed to providing the best education for our children, and together we have already started to improve the areas of concern that Ofsted has identified."

Mark Dunn, West Sussex County Council cabinet member for children and young people's services, said: "St Catherine's will be receiving all the help it needs to address the concerns of the Ofsted inspectors.

"The report was disappointing, but was far from being completely negative. Work has already started to make improvements and we must now build on this. I am confident that the school will start to improve in the near future."