A West Norwood primary school has been put on special measures after a damning Ofsted report found the school's performance was inadequate.

The report, published at the end of January, said that Elm Wood Primary School, in Carnac Street, is "failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education".

The struggling school received predominantly grade 4 inadequate rulings in the report's categories, as well as some grade 3 satisfactory marks.

The report also stated that the school's reluctance to acknowledge pupil's underachievement had led to a lack of urgency to make improvements. It also said the pace of lessons were too slow because teachers had too low expectations of what the children can achieve.

But it did praise the pupils positive relationships with staff and said the school's new interim headteachers had made a good start to their work, and had begun to raise staff morale in a short time.

It concluded that "at present, the school lacks the capacity to improve".

A spokeswoman from Lambeth Council, which maintains the school, said it was working closely with the school's new leadership team to address the issues highlighted by Ofsted.

She said the new headteachers had only been in place for a month before the inspection took place and had already identified areas on which work was urgently needed.

Stephen Hall, associate headteacher at Elm Wood, said: "Despite there being specific areas of improvement urgently needed, Elm Wood benefits from a hard working, caring and dedicated staff team, and fantastic children who are well behaved and eager to learn.

"Parents are a huge asset at our school and are really committed to working with us to bring about positive changes."

Phyllis Dunipace, executive director of Lambeth Council's children's services, said it was very disappointing the school had been put on special measures.

"We firmly see this as an opportunity to address shortcomings and to move forward rapidly to ensure the highest quality provision for pupils, " she added.