A Sheerness school is still not making enough progress towards exiting special measures following a second monitoring inspection.

St Edward’s Catholic Primary, in New Road, Sheerness, was rated as inadequate by Ofsted following a visit in March 2013.

It was deemed to have serious weaknesses in the achievement of its 210 pupils, quality of teaching and leadership and management.

The first monitoring inspection since it was told to improve was carried out in July.

It found that action plans by Kent County Council and the school were not sufficient to forge a path out of special measures.

A report on a second inspection in December has found it is still not meeting expected targets, although the local authority’s statement of action has now been deemed “fit for purpose”.

The inspector found: “Pupils continue to underachieve because the quality of teaching has not improved since the last inspection.”

The report states that learning was inadequate in just under half of the lessons seen, and “expectations are not high enough in all lessons and pupils complete too little work in the time available”.

It goes on to say: “The executive head teacher has taken steps quickly to eradicate inadequate teaching but these have been too recent to tackle underperformance across the school sufficiently.”

The school left a federation with St Peter’s Catholic School in Sittingbourne last month.

An interim improvement board is currently responsible for the school’s governance.

It now plans to convert to an academy as part of the Kent Catholic Schools Partnership.

Former head Caroline Jackson is no longer with the school.

Executive head teacher Amanda Woolcombe, who was appointed in September, will be seconded from another school for three days a week for the next 18 months.

She said: “We acknowledge the concerns raised by Ofsted and have a clear plan of action to move the school forward rapidly.

“St Edward’s has undergone a change of leadership and is on track to become an
academy.

“The school continues to work closely with the diocese and Kent County Council. A meeting will be held with parents this term to discuss improvements.”