THE head teacher of a school told by standards inspectors to improve says the news didn’t come as a surprise.

But Jo Trickett, head of Hoo St Werburgh Primary School and the Marlborough Centre, says she is confident that the school will turn things around by this time next year.

A team from Ofsted found that significant improvement is required to raise standards and achievement in English and maths.

Miss Trickett, who took over from Alison Louden in June last year, said: “We expected it and we were trying to improve things before we were issued with the notice.

“We know where we are and what we’ve got to do.

“We need to raise the level of learning, which sounds dire, but everything is already in place to do that.

“We have ability sets in place for maths and English and children’s progress is being tracked via an IT system which is updated every six weeks.

“It means we can quickly address any problems by tailoring the teaching to children’s needs.

“There is no inadequate teaching at the school. It’s really about the continuity of learning over a period of time.

“There’s on-going staff development and training and we are also part of an authority-funded programme which gives us access to an advisor and consultant for pupil progress and analysis in maths and English.

It also means we can ask for additional staff training.

“We are a very happy and friendly school, we just need to make sure that learning is pushed.

“Nothing bad has been said by parents since receiving the notice, which suggests they can see the changes already in place and they’re happy about what’s going on.

“It really is a privilege to be the head teacher of this lively and caring school and I am confident we will turn things around.”

The school will receive a monitoring visit by Ofsted inspectors within the next eight months and a full Ofsted inspection is likely to be carried out in about 12 months.