A KNUTSFORD primary school has been placed in ‘special measures’ by Ofsted.

Peover Superior Primary School, on Stocks Lane, was visited by an Ofsted inspector in January and was found to be failing in three of the four key areas – falling two categories, from ‘Good’ to ‘Inadequate’.

The school will now be closely monitored by the regulatory body.

Lisa Hesmondhalgh, who took up Peover Superior’s head teacher post in September 2013, said: “While this is a challenging time for the school I have every confidence that Peover Superior has the capacity for rapid and sustained improvement.

“All of the staff, governors and children are working extremely hard on formulating and implementing a focused action plan and I feel privileged to be asked to lead the team towards future success.”

A school requires special measures when it is found to be failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and those leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

In January’s report, the school’s three key areas received the lowest grade, ‘inadequate’ – achievement of pupils, quality of teaching, and leadership and management.

The fourth key area, behaviour and safety of pupils, ‘requires improvement’.

The inspector reported that plans to improve the school are weak and fail to focus on the most important priorities. Teaching has deteriorated significantly and staff have received little training or support since the last inspection in 2012.

The school said it had previously identified areas to ensure progress and a ‘rigorous and robust’ action plan had recently been put in place.

The school added that Ofsted was made aware of these improvements during the inspection but judged them too recent to have an impact at the time.

The school is now working closely with Cheshire East Council to write a new action plan to swiftly deal with all the points identified in the report.

Ms Hesmondhalgh added: “We will continue all the good work we have started and make sure that the quality of teaching continues to improve. We are determined to move the school out of the category as quickly as we can.”