A PRIMARY school that was put into special measures when Ofsted inspectors said it was failing to provide an acceptable standard of education has managed to turn itself around in the space of six months.

Bridlewood School in Blunsdon has improved in every area since last September, to the delight of parents, staff and governors.

Leadership, personal development and early years provision have all been rated good, while the quality of teaching and outcomes for pupils require improvement.

It is a far cry from the results of the July inspection which saw the school rated as inadequate in leadership, quality of teaching and outcomes and said personal development and early years provision required improvement.

New chairman of the governors Don Chadwick said: “Now, six months on, we have had a monitoring visit from Ofsted and they were so pleased with what they saw they converted to a full inspection and have moved us out of special measures and into requires improvement.”

“It is extremely, extremely rare for any school to achieve this,” Mr Chadwick told the Advertiser. “This is a great story of achievement for the staff and pupils and parents.”

At the time of the last inspection the school had already identified the problems it was facing and was working on an improvement plan.

Appointing the right leader had made a big difference and she had brought a lot of experience in implementing the national curriculum. “Vicky Sammon has been a fantastic head teacher,” said Mr Chadwick.

Her strong leadership and the hard work of the staff had brought about the change.

The report, which can be seen on the Ofsted website, praised the senior leadership team, early years provision, the curriculum and the pupils. “Leadership is good because significant improvements have occurred in the short time since the previous inspection.

“As a result the leaders have strong capacity to drive future school improvement,” the inspectors decided.

“Pupils are a delight. They are well behaved, polite and friendly. Staff look after them well. Consequently they feel they belong in school and are valued.”

It said the curriculum was designed to interest and stimulate pupils and was supported by extracurricular visits and activities.

Mrs Sammon, who took over in April came in for particular praise.

“The head teacher, ably supported by other senior leaders, is steadily implementing her vision for the school. She has a very clear idea of where the school should be.”

Early years teachers were applauded for having high expectations of the children, who were doing well as a result of good teaching.

In 2016 the school was ranked in the bottom five per cent of all schools for achievement in reading, writing and maths at the end of key stage 2.

Last year’s report said it had declined since the previous inspection in 2012 when it was judged to be a good school, and the inspectors criticised the governors for not challenging the school leaders about the decline.