John Milton school's early years teaching, child care and management are praised and it is "soundly placed to improve further" in its Ofsted report published on Friday.

Though inspectors found "shortcomings" in teaching and poor standards of literacy and numeracy throughout the school, it said the school's "quality of teaching and learning" had improved hugely since the June 2000 Ofsted inspection gave the school a "serious weakness" rating.

The report comes the week after Wandsworth Council unveiled its closure plans, citing the school's poor quality of teaching as a major factor.

Chesterton, one of the schools taking on pupils if Milton closes, is still on a "serious weakness" rating.

But the Ofsted report says rather than poor teaching, John Milton's low key stage one and two results are more the result of pupil's "disadvantaged backgrounds" and starting school with "poorly developed skills in personal independence, language, literacy and communication".

January 27, 2003 11:00