A report published this week judges the school to be "weak" in several fields including the standard of curriculum on offer. But the primary's nursery class fared better, with inspectors pleased at the progress made by the pre-school children.

There was also much praise for pupils in all classes who were described in the report as "polite, well-mannered and enthusiastic."

The positive relationship between staff members and their charges was also commended.

Inspector Laura Welford visited the 30-pupil school in September and paid particular attention to English language and mathematics. She assessed how well the subjects were taught, and the standard reached by pupils.

Ms Welford found that although the four nursery youngsters were making good progress in early number and language skills, the same was not so at the primary stages.

The report states: "Across the primary stages, children had not made sufficient progress from prior levels in listening, talking, reading, writing and mathematics."

The inspector deemed the curriculum on offer in the nursery class to be "broad and stimulating," but she stated there were "important weaknesses" in the design of the curriculum for the primary classes.

She reported: "The school does not meet children's learning needs well. Teachers do not always set tasks and activities at the right level of difficulty for children. The pace of learning is not always good enough for all pupils to make enough progress. Almost all pupils need to be given more challenging work."

The inspector also found that parents felt they were not always kept well informed about the school and they wanted to be more involved with their children's learning. Steps needed to be taken to improve this.

But Ms Welford was happy that the school had a clear sense of direction and knew where it was going under the leadership of acting head teacher Jane Kitchener who has only been in post since January this year.

The report states: "The acting head teacher with the support of the education authority had clearly identified areas for school improvement.

"She had worked well with staff to improve the ethos in the school and staff morale was now high. "

Commenting on the report, Ms Kitchener said: "Our current improvement plan identifies some of the issues and action to address them is already in progress. The positive teamwork that exists within the school will provide a sound basis for developing strong community links."

A follow-up inspection of the school is to take place in a year's time.

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