A PRIMARY school put into special measures has been told it is making “reasonable” progress towards removal of the restrictions.

St John the Evangelist Primary School in Bluebell Way, Carterton, was revisited by Ofsted in July to monitor the school’s development since it was given the restriction in November last year.

It was told that it must improve teaching – especially in years 3 to 6 – improve rates of progress in maths, improve behaviour, improve leadership and management and make sure governors hold senior leaders and managers more robustly to account.

It had gone from a previous “satisfactory” rating.

Special measures require regular short-notice inspections by schools’ watchdog Ofsted to monitor improvement.

The report from July’s visit by inspectors Ann Henderson and Phillip Minns has just been published.

Inspector Henderson said newly-qualified teachers may not be appointed but the school “is making reasonable progress towards the removal of special measures”.

The report added: “In other subjects and in maths, during the scrutiny of pupils’ work, standards of presentation, their spelling and handwriting are not good enough.

“Teachers do not have high enough expectations; they do not routinely expect pupils to present their work neatly, with correct spellings and correctly orientated joined and legible handwriting.”

Interim head Chris Price, who was appointed in January until December, said: “We are pleased with the many positive comments such as ‘senior leaders are employing strategies to accelerate pupils’ progress’, and the ‘quality of teaching is improving’, which led to the further comment of ‘there is a higher proportion of good teaching’.

“We have all, staff and governors, worked extremely hard to achieve these improvements and staff are to be praised for positive attitudes and being keen to improve their practice.

“HMI also noted the good relationships between adults and pupils and between pupils. This is something we greatly value.

“We are continuing to work hard on the areas for improvement.”

Ofsted also said “no inadequate teaching” was observed and the teaching quality was improving.