An experienced headteacher has been brought in to shore up a Coventry school taken into special measures.

Government inspectors decided that Gosford Park Primary School in Humber Avenue, Stoke, needed special action to take it out of decline following an inspection in January this year.

The school was found to have serious weaknesses in November 1998 because of difficulties with special needs pupils.

Despite action to try and improve the situation, inspectors decided that matters had got worse.

The behaviour of some pupils was deemed to be so bad that it was disrupting teachers and affecting other pupil’s achievements.

Since then, the headteacher, Judith Olney, who was appointed to the school following the first inspection, has taken early retirement.

An experienced acting headteacher, Derek Gardiner, currently head of Ravensdale Primary School, will step in.

And Coventry City Council has decided to appoint three new governors to support any changes that are made.

They are: Elaine Hancox, who retires as head of Sherbourne Fields special school at the end of this month; Cllr Karen McKay (Soc, St Michael’s) who is a parent of a pupil at the school; and parent Ian Marborde, who will help develop the school’s Information Technology.

In a report on the situation, Dave Simpson of the city council’s education department said of Mr Gardiner’s switch from Ravensdale:

“The appointment has been agreed by both school governing bodies and is a reflection of the collaborative working between primary schools in the city.”