STAFF at a Petersfield school have been left reeling after inspectors published a damning report of their all-round performance. Now Herne Junior School on Love Lane has been placed in "special measures", meaning the local authority has the power to take over and enforce changes if it sees fit. The school was handed the lowest grades possible in all but two of the categories in the Ofsted report. And the upper management was criticised for failing to "take the school in the right direction". According to the report, released last week, standards across the board were seen as "not good enough" compared to pupils' high levels on entry. But staff say it is unlikely the local authority will use its statutory powers and say they have already got plans in place to act on the inspector's suggestions. The report of the inspection, which took place in late September, said: "The school believes its effectiveness to be good, but inspection findings show that it is ineffective and provides unsatisfactory value for money. "Improvement since the last inspection, when it was judged to be a very good school, is inadequate. "Standards are broadly average and that is not good enough given pupils' good attainment on entry. "The quality of education, including teaching and the curriculum, is inadequate because pupils do not make sufficient progress. In addition, the pace of lessons is too slow so that little learning takes place. "Leadership and management have not identified the most important things to be done to halt the decline in standards in recent years. "...HMCI is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school." Pupils in English and maths lessons were, the report added, making "insufficient progress". "Pupils taught in groups set by ability in English and mathematics in years four, five and six often receive the same work regardless of their ability. Also the major part of some lessons is given over to written tests for mental arithmetic and spelling. "This means the pace of the lessons is very slow, insufficient learning takes place and some pupils become restless." Staff and governors at the school said they were surprised and disappointed by the report and would do everything they could to get the school back on track. Governor Peter Bisset said the last inspection took place in 2000 and that the management had now identified the areas for improvement. He said: "Good will come out of this. We are achieving high standards but they should be higher in the light of the wealth of the area. "The best thing is that they are pointing us in the right direction." And acting head Val McElhinney added: "We did not expect this at all. We already knew we had to improve the maths and that had been identified." An earlier statement said the school was proud of its "caring ethos" and pointed out the positive remarks made by the inspectors. The statement said: "The school is meeting average national standards but the inspectors felt that results should be better and therefore placed the school in special measures. "The inspectors state 'the school is rightly proud of its caring ethos'. They also recognise that the children enjoy coming to school and get on well with each other. "Attendance is well above average and the school makes a good contribution to the local community. "During the inspection, the inspectors commented on the 'hardworking and dedicated staff'. "The school believes that these strengths provide the basis for tackling the issues raised in the report. The priority is to raise standards in core subjects. "Systems have already been put into place to address the issues raised in the report. "The local authority has every confidence in the current management team and staff, and it will not be using any of its statutory powers to make changes. "Staff and governors are committed to ensure nothing will stand in the way of progress."
