Oswestry primary school praised for fast turnaround

Holy Trinity Primary School, in Oswestry, has been praised for turning its fortunes around by Ofsted inspectors, who said teaching standards had improved and that there were no weaknesses in the school's leadership.

The comments have been made after inspectors made their fourth visit to the school, in Middleton Road, since they placed it into special measures in April last year.

A school is usually expected to take two years to come out of special measures, but Holy Trinity has managed it in just over half that time. The judgment has been hailed as "fantastic news" by the school's new head Pam Edwards, while Shropshire councillor Ann Hartley said she was "delighted".

The school was deemed "inadequate" by the Government's education watchdog following a visit last February. Inspectors claimed the school was too slow in making essential improvements in teaching, with the junior school children's achievements lower than when the school was previously inspected by Ofsted two years earlier.

In February this year inspectors visited again, but while they agreed that "encouraging signs of improvement" had been made, it was deemed to be not enough to remove the special measures order.

At that time inspectors felt that Mrs Edwards' appointment would help turn the situation around.

The decision to take the school out of special measures has been announced by Mrs Edwards, and Ofsted will publish a full report in the near future. Mrs Edwards said: "This is fantastic news and means that the school can now continue to move forward."