A FIRST school in Kidderminster has been given the thumbs up by Government inspectors but poor attendance was judged to be a major problem.

St George's CE First was "a good school where children achieve well" and had made satisfactory improvement since its last inspection.

The Ofsted report said, however, attendance was "poor" and had to be improved.

The number of children turning up at school, which also includes a nursery, was well below the national average.

Punctuality was also unsatisfactory, the report by the schools inspectorate said, although it worked hard to keep the number of absences down, including court action.

Headteacher, Jenny Wadlow, said: "It is disappointing. We do work very hard to encourage parents to get their children to school on time regularly and it seems to be a small group of parents who persistently are unable to achieve that."

Other improvements urged in the report included putting in place a consistent marking policy, ensuring better spelling and presentation of work and a stronger governor presence.

The rest was positive news for the school in Plane Tree Close.

The children "have good attitudes to work, behave well and contribute well to school life" while "leadership by the headteacher is very good and the school is well managed".

Around a quarter of pupils spoke English as a second language yet support for their needs was judged to be good. Pupils with special educational needs were well catered for, it said.

Provision for individual subjects ranged from satisfactory to very good while staff and the head had "worked hard to move the school forward".

This was a crucial factor, said Mrs Wadlow. She added: "It says a lot about the quality of staff. They are tremendous - everybody from those in the office, teaching assistants and cleaners - I am privileged to work with them."

The report comes at a crucial time for the school. Worcestershire County Council has proposed merging St George's with Kidderminster's Lea Street and St Mary's First on to two sites.

Mrs Wadlow said: "We should be retained because we serve very distinct catchment areas and I think we provide good quality education because we know our children, the parents and community.

"We can work very closely with all of them."

She pointed to positive inspections from the Diocese of Worcester and recognition last year from Investors in People.