A Croydon primary school where “too many pupils are regularly absent” has been given a 'requires improvement' rating after its latest Ofsted inspection.

Kensington Avenue Primary School, based in Thornton Heath, was evaluated as requiring improvement in quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, leadership and management, and early years provision, and good in personal development.

The primary school was inspected on July 3 and 4, 2023, October 17, 2023, and March 5 and 6, 2024, and the report was published on May 13, 2024.

Inspectors found that younger pupils are “unsettled by the anti-social behaviours of some of the older pupils.”

While pupils know that adults will sort issues out and behaviour incidents are reduced, some “unwelcome behaviour persists”.

They also found the attendance of the school to be worrying as “too many pupils are regularly absent from the school”.

While the school is working with families to address this and there has been “success with individual pupils,” they noted that there is not an “improving picture” regarding attendance overall.

The inspectors praised the staff for understanding the key topics students needed to learn as well as their teaching methods.

However, they found that this extensive knowledge did not extend to other subjects.

As a result, pupils are not learning knowledge across the curriculum “in the detail and depth needed to fully prepare them” for the next stage of their education.

Inspectors also noted that staff plan activities, but they do not routinely use checks to “gauge what pupils have remembered.”

This means that activities are not sufficiently adapted to meet the pupils' needs, including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Ofsted said, “Teachers do not always address misconceptions consistently,” and that the school does not “always precisely match additional support to pupils’ needs”.

Therefore, pupils do not develop a “secure body of knowledge”.

Inspectors praised the school’s new phonics programme and training for staff, calling it a “positive impact”, and noted that staff “spot pupils who need extra help swiftly”.

However, they also noted that the reading curriculum and support for weaker readers in the older years are not as effective.

While leaders have recognised this, “work has not yet started to address this”.

In terms of behaviour, inspectors saw that many behave well and that the school is taking “effective action” to reduce the use of “inappropriate language and the number of physical incidents”.

Ofsted ended its report by saying: “Leaders, including governors and trustees, know their school well.

“Sometimes, due partly to unforeseen circumstances, leaders have not provided sufficient strategic oversight of the curriculum or other aspects of their school development plan.

“This has hindered the extent to which leaders have been able to address some aspects of school improvement.”

Kensington Avenue Primary School was approached for a comment.