A primary school has received an inadequate rating from Ofsted and been told funding could be stripped – but the trust that runs it has hit back, saying the inspection was "flawed, unfair and absolutely ridiculous".

Featherby Junior School in Gillingham was inspected by the education watchdog in December 2021 when concerns over pupils' ability to read were raised.

The report stated the quality of education needed improvement, leadership and management was inadequate but behaviour and attitudes and personal development was good.

It said pupils enjoyed coming to the school in Chilham Road, felt safe and worked "very well together, sharing ideas and supporting each other in their learning".

The curriculum was also praised for teaching mathematics effectively and pupils are beginning to learn and remember more across subjects

The majority of parents were also said to be positive and said the school had improved in recent years.

Despite this, the junior school fell short and a termination warning notice for funding was issued on May 27 by the regional schools commissioner for the South East and south London, Claire Burton.

The letter said: "I received an Ofsted notification dated 21/01/2022 confirming that Featherby Junior School was judged to be inadequate and has serious weaknesses.

"As regional schools commissioner, I need to be satisfied that the trust has capacity to deliver rapid and sustainable improvement at the academy.

"If I am not satisfied that this can be achieved, I will consider whether to terminate the funding agreement in order to transfer the academy to an alternative academy trust."

The letter stated the weaknesses in the reading curriculum – highlighted in the Ofsted report – were "still not strong enough" meaning pupils' reading fluency is not developing appropriately for their age and "too many" had struggled to learn the read.

Some staff were also said to not have the skills to teach pupils to read or did not have the correct resources to do so.

It also said key leaders responsible for safeguarding did not have a clear understanding of their roles and sometimes thought concerns outside of school should be the parents' responsibility meaning staff were not ensuring all pupils were getting the help they need.

Lastly, the letter said the record-keeping for safeguarding was also "weak" and not containing enough evidence of what happened in response to a concern.

The junior school, which is part of the Maritime Academy Trust, has since commissioned an external safeguarding audit where the officer disagreed with the Ofsted findings.

Following the inspection, it made a complaint and said the findings had a "lack of evidence". It asked for a re-inspection as it believed the first was "flawed" but this was ignored.

Featherby is also contesting the judgment for quality of education as it believes the inspection did not give "leaders the opportunity to discuss the reading evidence with them to provide full information and context, such as the impact of the pandemic."

A spokesperson for the school, said: "As demonstrated by our robust external audits from actual safeguarding experts and our receipt of the Safeguarding Quality Mark, our junior school continues to be a wonderful, safe and secure place for children, just like our infant school.

"Nothing has changed in this regard. We want to thank our entire Featherby Family of our parents, pupils, staff and wider community for their ongoing support and for making both infant and junior such amazing schools."

A spokesperson for the trust, added: "We are thrilled for the infant school to be recognised as a ‘Good’ school, and are delighted that both the infant and junior schools were awarded the prestigious Safeguarding Quality Mark, which demonstrates the complete lack of credibility in the junior school’s inspection report findings.

"We will not let this stop us from continuing to make the whole of both schools a fantastic educational experience..."

"Our leaders and staff across both schools have the full support of the trust - for a large number of reasons, the inspection of the junior school was flawed, unfair and absolutely ridiculous.

"For awareness, when an academy receives an inadequate judgement from Ofsted, it is standard practice for the Department of Education (DfE) to send a notice to the academy’s trust board asking them to provide the DfE with an update on the plans for improvement at the academy. This is known as a ‘termination warning notice’ because if the academy then does not improve, the DfE may take further action.

"The DfE is aware of both the inconsistencies in the inspection and our ongoing plans, and we are working closely with them and keeping them informed along the way.

"In the meantime, we will not let this stop us from continuing to make the whole of both schools a fantastic educational experience for every single child. These are excellent schools that went absolutely above and beyond for our pupils and families throughout the pandemic. They have always gone to any length every day to ensure children are safe, happy and fully engaged in learning. We could not be prouder of these schools."