Burton Primary School has been placed in special measures after being given the lowest possible rating by government inspectors.

A highly critical Ofsted report said the Campbell Road school is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and slammed the quality of teaching offered and the “inadequate” progress made by a large majority of pupils.

Inspectors visited the 283-pupil school in November and have just published their report. Schools are ranked one for outstanding, two for good, three for satisfactory and four for inadequate. Burton was given a rating of four.

Inspectors concluded “too many lessons do not provide sufficient challenge” and said “the quality of teaching is inconsistent across the school.”

But they praised the school for the way it looks after children and said pupils have a clear understanding of how to stay healthy and safe.

The Early Years Foundation Stage of the school was also praised and was ranked level two, good.

Inspectors said staffing instability in recent years has affected the school’s development and said, despite a satisfactory curriculum, progress made in English and maths at the end of year 6 was “significantly below average.”

In a letter to pupils, lead inspector Joy Considine said: “While there are many good things about your school, we found that too many of you are not making enough progress in many of your lessons and we have, therefore, judged your school to need special measures. This means it will get a lot of help to improve.”

View the Ofsted report in full on our Ofsteds page

The school has been ordered to raise the quality of teaching and learning so that none is inadequate and more than 60 per cent is good by December this year.

Leaders and managers have also been told to sharpen evaluation, use the best teachers as role models to improve standards and develop the curriculum.

Jane Minnett, former head of Spetisbury Primary, has been brought in to help the school.

She said: “We are disappointed that Burton Primary has been put into special measures but are confident that we can address the issues raised by Ofsted and turn the school around.

“Staff have the expertise, will and commitment to achieve this and I’m sure we will make rapid progress.”

The school is working to improve leadership and management, raise the quality of teaching and learning and develop the curriculum, including more opportunities to practise reading, number and IT skills.