A primary school in London Colney has been told it needs to improve the standard of teaching.

London Colney Primary School in Alexander Road slipped from a ‘good’ rating to ‘requires improvement’ when the school was visited by Ofsted last month.

The education watchdog said the school, which teaches 154 pupils aged between the ages of four and 11, has not maintained the achievement of pupils and the good teaching noted in the last report from 2011.

When the school was visited last month, inspectors said the leadership of teaching has not been effective enough over time in ensuring that it is of good quality across the school.

However, the report praised pupils attitudes to learning and said they feel safe and well looked after by staff.

Inspectors said the school did not meet the current government floor standards in 2014, which set the minimum expectations for pupils' attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics.

They also noted that headteacher Lisa Valla is also the executive headteacher of the Nursery and a Children’s Centre on the same site – and the two organisations are merging with the primary school in April 2015.

Ms Valla said: "We are really proud of our pupils. As the report said, they continue to ‘show a keen interest in learning’ and inspectors said they were seen to be ‘courteous, friendly and helpful to others’.

"This behaviour, alongside the dedication of the staff in promoting the children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, led to the school maintaining its ‘Good’ judgement for behaviour and safety.

"The report constantly refers to aspects ‘steadily improving’ because the inspectors recognised during their visit that the school is aware and are working on, the areas for development.

"During final feedback, the lead inspector told the leadership team that he felt that the school was already heading in the right direction to return to ‘Good’. He also stated that he had enjoyed spending time in the school because the school had a ‘very big heart’."

To improve, the school needs to make sure most pupils make good or better progress over time and raise pupils’ attainment by the end of Year 6 by making sure that in all classes teachers expect pupils to do their very best ensuring that in all classes, work set is at the right level of challenge for pupils, especially the most able making the best use of time in lessons so that pupils learn at a quicker rate.

They also need to strengthen leadership and management by: taking decisive and effective action to improve any teaching that is not good.

Ms Valla added: "We are a very inclusive school, with high mobility and small class sizes and these factors can affect our SAT results greatly. However, the majority of children that have attended the school since Key Stage 1 made progress and fulfilled their potential."