A Gorleston school criticised by Ofsted at its last inspection has been told it needs to take 'immediate action' to bring about the rapid improvements needed.

Wroughton Junior School was rated as 'requires improvement' in June by inspectors who found pupils' progress was uneven and that teachers did not provide the right classroom challenges.

In a letter to headteacher Michael Hawkes following a monitoring visit last month inspector John Mitcheson rounded on senior leaders and governors for 'not taking effective action' to tackle the problem areas.

He said plans were 'not sharply focused' on rapidly bringing about improvement and that the use of assessment data needed to be sharpened in order to measure its recovery.

Elsewhere in the letter he says the head can improve his leadership by sharing his vision and working more collaboratively with all staff.

The letter highlights work that is being done well and says plans 'rightly prioritise' areas of underachievement.

However targets set to ensure pupils are fully challenged 'lack rigour.'

The letter concludes: 'Your vision of what consistently good teaching should look like throughout the school is unclear and has not been shared with all staff.

Collaborative working between senior leaders, middle leaders, teachers and other staff to gain common agreement on the best strategies to move the school forward is under-developed.

'Governors recognise the need for rapid improvement to the school.

'Increasingly they are holding your directly to account for the school's performance through a recently formed monitoring committee and have set targets for you to meet to show the impact you are having in raising achievement.'

Norfolk County Council has increased its level of support and provided and external consultant to work alongside staff in school once a week.

According to the letter the local authority has also increased its level of challenge for the head and are monitoring closely the level of improvement. Links have also been brokered with other schools.

Since the last inspection two teachers have left the school and one newly-qualified teacher has joined.

Latest results in national tests were variable with the pecentage of pupils attaining national expectations in English and maths increased but pupils made less progress in reading than they did in maths and writing.

The earlier report had highlighted positives alongside what needed improvement with pupils' behaviour and safety judged 'good'.