Education watchdog Ofsted has placed a crisis-hit Bradford primary school in the failing Special Measures category, three turbulent years after its last inspection.

In a damning report, the inspection body details 14 areas the new interim executive board (IEB) at Feversham Primary School, in Bradford Moor, needs to tackle to improve the standard of education on offer to its 459 pupils.

Education Bradford, which provides support services to schools throughout the district, replaced the school’s governing body last month with the approval of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

The report, which has been made public two months after the inspection, states that the school fails to give pupils an acceptable standard of education and its leaders were not demonstrating that they could secure improvement.

It says that while the school is meeting its pastoral needs adequately, pupils are not being enabled to achieve well enough. Difficult relationships between some staff, governors and external partners such as Bradford Council and Education Bradford have been a serious impediment to the school, says the report.

Governors, the report recognises, put much time and effort into their roles, but dealt with personnel and human resource matters at the expense of their broader role as well as the school’s funds.

Head teacher Rashidah Butt returned in January after a two-year absence, during which there have been three interim head teachers. Almost all pupils are from minority ethnic backgrounds and speak English as an additional language. The inspection team found pupils to be polite, friendly and on the whole well behaved. They get on well together and show respect for other cultures.

The report says the standards of too much teaching is inadequate though. Many pupils lack confidence and a higher than average proportion are persistently absent.

School staff are trying to minimise the impact of the school’s difficulties on pupils and they are being well cared for, with extra support provided for those who are potentially vulnerable. The school has a welcoming environment and extra support provided for pupils with special educational and language needs is helpful, the report said.

The IEB, chaired by Margaret Platts MBE, the former head teacher at Belle Vue Girls’ School, has taken over the running of the school for the foreseeable future in a bid to resolve its problems.