A PRIMARY school is set to break away from Lancashire County Council’s control and become an academy later this year.

Great Marsden St John’s CE Primary School in Nelson will obtain the new status on Wednesday, April 1, according to Ofsted inspectors.

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The Trent Road school was praised for recent improvements during a recent visit from inspectors.

The Section Eight monitoring inspection was the fourth since it was placed into special measures in November, 2013, after being rated as inadequate.

It was criticised for the low levels of the pupils’ achievements, the quality of teaching, the behaviour and the safety of the pupils and the leadership and management of the school.

Lead inspector Mark Williams said that the school had made ‘reasonable progress’ since the last inspection in 2014 and that it was on the road to coming out of special measures.

Two new teachers have been appointed to the school since the last monitoring inspection in September, with the new members of staff joining Year Four and Reception.

Mr Williams said: “Work in pupils’ books shows they continue to make better progress than they did in the past. Gaps between disadvantaged pupils and their peers are closing.

“Leaders’ focus on reading and, for younger pupils, phonics, is paying dividends.

“As a result, pupils are on course to reach the targets set for them in this aspect of their learning.

“Whereas in the September, 2014, monitoring inspection, pupils’ learning in mathematics was sometimes hindered by adults not always using mathematical vocabulary correctly, this is much less prevalent now.

“However, on a very few occasions, there is still an attempt to move pupils on too quickly before they have understood what is being taught. This causes pupils to become confused.

“Leaders have correctly identified the need to focus on improving the quality of pupils’ writing. However, because sometimes pupils work outside the classroom, the benefits of regular promptings and re-shaped questions by teachers are not always felt in a timely fashion.

“As a result, if misunderstandings do occur, they are not always addressed quickly enough.

“The low-level disruption identified in the November, 2013, inspection report is not a common feature of the school today.”

Mrs Underwood, said: “It’s very pleasing to read in our latest monitoring report that the inspectors could clearly see the improvements we are making at St John’s.

“They commented that the progress children are making has ‘taken off’ and that better use of marking and measures such as ‘fix it’ time are really improving the way our pupils learn.

“We’re also proud that they noticed our children’s good behaviour, their improved attendance and their involvement in community issues such as supporting our local food bank.”

“We expect to achieve our academy status this spring and I am confident that the school will continue to develop and improve with the help of our staff, pupils, parents, sponsors and governors.”