A primary school in Oldham is still being ordered to improve since its first poor inspection in 2017.

Alexandra Park Junior School, situated on Brook Lane, has taught children aged seven to 11 for decades and was visited by Ofsted in May this year for a monitoring inspection.

The visit comes as the school was told to improve by the education watchdog in November 2017 and again in January last year.

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Despite inspector David Robinson noting that leaders have made some progress to improve the school in the last 18 months, he wrote "more work is necessary for the school to become good" and said it "continues to require improvement".

In January, an inspector found the school was 'good' in certain categories - personal development and behaviour and attitudes - but said the quality of education and its leadership and management is what brings the primary down a grade.

A prevailing issue at the time was the way in which mathematics was being taught, with the inspector writing: "Pupils do not achieve as well as they should."

"This is because there are times when teachers do not design learning that helps pupils to remember the intended curriculum over time."

Now, in a letter sent to the school this month, Mr Robinson praised leaders for addressing the writing and maths issue and improving the support teachers receive.

He said that teachers are now adequately supported to deliver the mathematics curriculum and, as a result, is being taught effectively.

When it came to phonics and early reading, the inspector also had a lot of praise for Alexandra Park primary leaders, writing that they "implemented a whole-school approach" to teaching the programme which is "being followed consistently well by all staff".

This is of particular benefit of pupils who speak English as an additional language as they "learn phonics more successfully now than they did in the past".

In 2022, it was noted students at the school did not write as well as others did across the country by the end of Year 6.

Mr Robinson said improvements have since been made with a renewed focus on spelling, punctuation and grammar and developing pupils' vocabulary.

But despite the school's new "ambitious" curriculum, he added that not all subjects are "well developed" and teachers remain unclear on the important knowledge they should teach.

"This means that pupils do not learn as well as they should in these subjects", he wrote.

To bump up a grade, the inspector identified three key areas for the school to improve.

This includes identifying "important knowledge" pupils need to know in subjects beyond English and mathematics, ensuring pupils have writing knowledge to help them progress in the next stage of their education and develop strategies that teachers use to check what pupils know.

Alexandra Park Junior School has been approached for comment.

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