A Northwood primary school has been told it needs to improve after previously being rated as outstanding.

Eastbury Farm Primary School, in Bishops Avenue, Northwood, has been told it “requires improvement” by Ofsted after a two day inspection last month.

The education watchdog said the primary school had not been doing and recording staff recruitment checks well enough.

The report by Wendy Varney, lead inspector for Ofsted, said: “Although there is no indication that pupils have been put at risk, the school’s systems for ensuring the safer recruitment of staff of staff are not rigorous enough.

“The school’s systems for obtaining references for potential new employees are not rigorous enough and do not follow advice given in the statutory guidance.

“The School’s approach to obtaining adequate references when appointing midday supervisory assistants is too lax.”

Ofsted told the school to make sure they get a better Disclosure and Barring Service Check (DBS) before new staff are hired and make sure better references are received, regardless of the employee’s proposed role.

Enhanced DBS check’s ensure employers know about applicants spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings and includes any information relevant to the workforce being applied for.

Inspectors highlighted that there had been a number of significant staff changes since the school’s last inspection five years ago.

The report said: “After a period of interim headship, the current substantive headteacher took up his post in September 2013. He is currently taking a brief period of planned absence and is expected to return to the school after Easter.”

Ms Varney added teachers had worked “very hard to improve the quality of teaching” at the Northwood school, which takes on a large number of children of military personnel at the nearby military base in Sandy Lodge Lane.

She said: “There is clear evidence that the school has been successful in ‘turning the tide’ and that quality of teaching is on a strongly upward trajectory. As a result, pupils achieve well and make increasingly good progress.

“Teachers frequently encourage pupils to think of a ‘better word’ in lessons and use the vocabulary specific to the subject being taught.

“For example, in a year 3 literacy lesson, pupils were encouraged to use words such as ‘endangered’ and ‘extinct’ when writing a discussion about the existence of zoos.”

The school will now be reinspected within the next two years.