A HIGH turnover in staff in recent years has today been blamed by inspectors for a drop in standards at a Suffolk primary school.

A HIGH turnover in staff in recent years has today been blamed by inspectors for a drop in standards at a Suffolk primary school.

Rattlesden Primary School has had five headteachers in the past five years as well as “significant change” in other positions.

Ofsted carried out an inspection at the school on January 14 and found that levels of attainment had fallen since a previous visit in 2003.

A report compiled by lead inspector John Francis said: “As a result of many changes to the leadership and a drop in standards over time, the school currently provides a satisfactory rather than good standard of education as at the last time of inspection.”

The report commented that there had been an “almost complete change of teaching staff”.

It read: “The last acting headteacher recognised this and put in place appropriate measures to halt the downward slide in standards.

“These are already showing some impact through better assessment systems and challenging targets but have not had time to become fully embedded.

“The current headteacher has only been in school for a few days but has already begun to identify accurately the school's strengths and main areas it needs to improve.”

Among areas identified for improvement are the way pupils' progress is tracked through the school, allowing children to reinforce writing skills and improving planning in maths.

Despite weak points, the school was praised in a number of areas such as sport, creative development, good attendance and good management of classes by teachers.

Headteacher at the school, Jane Ash, said: “Although standards have fallen they still remain well above the LEA average.

“I thought there were many positive things to take from the report.”

“The children have a positive attitude and attendance is significantly higher than the national average.

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