ONE of the city’s largest primary schools has been told by Government inspectors it is failing after they found Pakistani children were underperforming compared to their white classmates.

The standards watchdog said overall results were broadly average at SS Mary and John CofE Primary, but Pakistani children were falling behind in English and maths.

The 407-pupil school, which is split between sites in Hertford Street and Meadow Lane, East Oxford, has now been put into special measures.

Headteacher of 12 years Pip Murray announced her resignation in December ahead of the report’s publication, and St Ebbe’s headteacher Liz Burton joined the school this month.

Ofsted inspector Margaret Dickinson said: “By the end of Year Six, the attainment of Pakistani pupils in English and mathematics has fallen behind that of Pakistani pupils nationally and is in sharp contrast to the above average attainment of white British pupils in the school.”

She added: “The main weaknesses in pupils’ learning and progress is that some pupils are not as involved as others because the teaching does not include them sufficiently.

“Consequently, some groups tend to be passive and their learning is not secure. This is often the case for pupils from Pakistani families.”

Ofsted said pupils from different cultures worked and played happily together, and behaviour was good at the “caring” school.

Half of SS Mary and John pupils are from ethnic minorities, with a quarter Pakistani in origin.

Michael Waine, county councillor with responsibility for school improvement, said Ofsted had given detailed advice about how to boost Pakistani children’s attainment, and said Mrs Burton had brought “great knowledge and experience” to the school.

He said: “The council is confident that under her guidance the school will make rapid progress and will achieve the improvements that will make the school’s stay in the special measures category as brief as possible.”

The Department for Education said it did not have a breakdown of the difference in attainment levels between pupils. The headteacher was unavailable for comment.

But, across Oxfordshire, 76 per cent of white seven-year-olds reach the expected standard in English and maths compared to 63 per cent of Asian youngsters. Nationally, the figure is 74 per cent for both white and Asian children.

Members of East Oxford’s Pakistani community said families must take some responsibility for the achievement gap.

Madinah Mosque chairman Riaz Ahmed said: “Primary school children have two influences: School and home.

“If children are under-performing we need to look at both the resources in school, and ask what sort of home environment these children have and how educationally-minded their parents are.

“I am aware a number of our parents are perhaps not doing what they should be, or not to the right level, in terms of being involved in the day-to-day upbringing of children with education in mind.”

He added: “The schools and the local authority need to come out of the box and look at the issues from the outside to see what needs to be done.”

County councillor Saj Malik, whose children go to SS Mary and John, added: “Pakistani parents have to take more responsibility, turn up to more parents’ meetings, become parent governors, and take a part in how the education system works in this country.I appreciate there can be language barriers, but this is for the benefit of their children’s education.”

lsloan@oxfordmail.co.uk