A NEW flagship £7.5 million school has been given a notice to improve after Ofsted branded it as "inadequate".

Hob Moor Community Primary School was only opened in May of last year, along with Hob Moor Oaks Special School and a Children's Centre and nursery on the same site.

But following an inspection by education watchdog Ofsted last month, the primary school has been branded inadequate.

The school has 314 children on the roll aged between three an 11.

Failings include poor attendance rates and bad behaviour among pupils, inconsistent management of bad behaviour and below average attainment rates.

The report states: "There has been insufficient improvement since the previous inspection, particularly with regard to pupils' attendance. Moreover, incidents of challenging behaviour are now more widespread than just in Years 5 and 6, as reported previously."

Pupils and parents also expressed concern about bullying and disruptive behaviour although the Ofsted inspector found that pupils say they feel safe at school and generally get on well together.

The nursery and reception stages of the school were found to be "good" and the overall standard of teaching and learning throughout the rest of the school was deemed to be "satisfactory", although there were examples of outstanding teaching.

Despite this, pupils' attainment in some areas remained below average.

The report said: "The constant struggle faced by even the most experienced teachers in controlling pupils' behaviour in lessons detracts from the quality of learning in some classes more than others."

When children enter Year One they are at the expected standard but by the end of Year Two "standards overall are significantly below average", said the inspectors.

By Year Six, the pupils were at an acceptable level in English and mathematics but are behind in science.

On the positive side, the report said children with learning disabilities made good progress at the school and there was a strong team spirit among staff members. The leadership and management at Hob Moor Primary School wasjudged to be "satisfactory".

In a statement, Karl Jarvis, head teacher at Hob Moor, said: "We are pleased that Ofsted has praised the hard work of staff to raise standards and support children as they learn in their recent inspection.

"However, we recognise that further improvement is still necessary.

"Inspectors are particularly keen to see improvements made in the behaviour and attendance of some children.

"We will be doubling our efforts and working hard with parents in the immediate future in order to make sure all our children succeed in making good progress in their learning.

"Ofsted agrees that we have set the correct priorities for improvement and that there are clear signs' our collective efforts are improving standards in literacy and numeracy.

"We are also delighted to know that they praised the children for their support of friends from our partner special school (Hob Moor Oaks School) and our staff for tackling issues with determination', working hard to make learning topics interesting and for providing a good range of extra-curricular activities' for them."