A village school that had to move two miles into Bradford under the schools shake-up has now been found by Ofsted to have "serious weaknesses".

St James' Church Primary School, which moved to Allerton from Thornton, did not cope well with the enormous changes of the past two years, inspectors found.

The school has grown from being a small first school in a village setting to a larger primary school on a large estate.

Since the move - strongly resisted by governors - a number of Thornton parents have moved their children out of the school, said head teacher Joyce Coyle.

The previously-stable school community had become more volatile with 43 new pupils joining and 26 leaving during the past academic year. Ofsted found standards in Years 5 and 6, the older age groups which the school began taking for the first time in 2000, were too low and the school was failing to address it properly. Results in the Key Stage 2 tests for 11-year-olds were in the lowest five per cent in the country for English and pupils were under-achieving, Ofsted said.

"The school has serious weaknesses because the leadership and management are not fully effective in improving standards in the core subjects of English, maths and science," inspectors reported.

The report did praise the high standards in information and communication technology (ICT) which is well taught, the caring environment provided at the school, and good teaching in Years 1 to 4. However poor attendance is criticised, mainly blamed on families choosing to take holidays in term time. It described the attendance rate of 93 per cent as "poor and well below the national average." The tag of serious weaknesses means the school faces more regular inspections.

Its leaders are drawing up an action plan.

Joyce Coyle, head teacher, said: "The school has changed enormously. We think some of the problems are down to our move from Thornton. Children are bussed here from Thornton now. We are still losing children to Thornton schools."

Governors are taking heart from positive comments in the report about the good relationships and atmosphere in the school. "Pupils care about the needs of others and are quick to comfort a classmate who is upset or has been hurt at playtime," inspectors noted.