Two Watford primary schools have been told they need to improve following their latest Ofsted reports.

Coates Way JMI and Nursery School, in Coates Way, and Leavesden Green JMI School and Nursery, in High Road, have both fallen from a "good" to "requires improvement" rating.

The Garston school and Leavesden school were downgraded following inspections from the education watchdog last month.

Coates Way’s headteacher, Steven Wells, said the changes to staffing were the main reason why the school went down a grade.

Mr Wells said: "For us it was a disappointment because we had 50 per cent new staff start.

"Unfortunately, we have little mobility in terms of teachers and children leaving the school. It just so happens that four teachers left who were amongst our longest-serving staff."

The school, which teaches more than 200 three to 11-year-olds, was inspected on October 22 and 23.

The inspectors report said the changes in staffing were "beyond the school’s control" and subsequently meant that "the progress made in improving teaching last year has not been sustained".

Four out of the eight class teachers joined the school at the beginning September.

Ofsted inspectors commended the headteacher on his "very strong leadership" which has meant "the school has been swift to deal with weak teaching".

The report said that the school is not "good" as extra help needs to be put in place for disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs.

Mr Wells, who became headteacher in 2010, said an action plan has been put in place to help their more vulnerable learners.

He added: "We’re always looking to improve and Ofsted is quite a good vehicle to look at what we need to evaluate and to do better. The quality of teaching is our number one priority."

The school was told it "requires improvement" in the areas of the achievement of pupils and the quality of teaching.

The behaviour and safety of pupils and leadership and management were considered "good".

Leavesden Green was told it needed to improve as not enough teaching was good or better and pupils were not always given clear instructions in ways to improve their work.

Out of the four areas by which a school is judged, the behaviour and safety of students was the only one which was deemed "good", with the achievement of pupils, the quality of teaching and leadership and management needing improvement.

The school, which teaches 230 children between the ages of three and 11-years-old, was told "the quality of teaching across the school varies too much".

Leavesden Green was visited by inspectors on October 17 and 18.

In order for the school to progress, the quality of teaching should improve so that more is good or outstanding and any instances of underachievement should be quickly tackled.

Leavesden Green’s head teacher, Anne Cook, was unavailable for comment.