INCONSISTENCY in the quality of teaching at a primary school has led to the academy being told to improve by Ofsted inspectors.

Harden Primary School converted into an academy 18 months ago and following its first inspection, which took place last month, has been told it "requires improvement".

The school is praised for the behaviour and safety of pupils, but has been told it requires improvement for its leadership and management, quality of teaching, achievement of pupils and its early years provision.

According to the report, new head teacher Kirsty Hutchinson, who took over in September, has put good systems in place to improve the school, which are starting to improve both teaching and achievement.

But the assistant headteachers and middle leaders at the Long Lane school "do not all have the skills or training to be able to monitor and evaluate teaching, achievement and the curriculum effectively, and to act on their findings".

The report states: "The headteacher has checked all aspects of the school's work thoroughly and knows how and where it needs to improve. She is taking appropriate actions to improve the school's effectiveness, including training leaders."

However, it also adds: "Standards are not high enough, especially in writing. The quality of teaching is too inconsistent to enable pupils to make good progress throughout the school. Leaders and managers do not all yet have the skills and experience to be fully effective in raising achievement in the school as quickly as possible.

"The headteacher has made teaching the main area for improvement and rightly sees the inconsistency in practices as the major barrier to pupils' making quicker progress."

Of the achievement of pupils the report adds that standards require improvement throughout the school, especially in writing, and that not enough pupils make better than expected progress in reading, writing and mathematics. By the end of Year 6, standards are broadly average overall.

On the early years provision Ofsted inspectors said children do not consistently learn as well as they could.

The recommendations from Ofsted include improving the quality of teaching, strengthening pupils' literacy and writing skills, and increasing the impact of leaders and managers on improving teaching and raising achievement.

The school, which has just over 200 pupils, was given a "good" rating in 2010 prior to it becoming an academy in September 2013.

A statement from the Governors of Harden Primary School said the 'requires improvement' rating was an "accurate assessment of the school at this current time."

The Governors pointed to "rapid improvements" in leadership and management to enable consistent teaching practice and improve staff morale since Mrs Hutchinson's appointment.

The statement said: "Pupil progress has been identified as a concern and this is being rigorously addressed."

The Governors added that they had the "utmost confidence" in the head teachers' ability to drive the school forward to keep the momentum going to 'outstanding'.

Councillor Ralph Berry, Bradford Council's executive member for children's services, said the primary partnership was already working with the school and offering support to the headteacher.

"We should not distinguish between academies and other schools when it comes to helping them improve standards.

"We want to work with them to make sure the school turns things around as quickly as possible."