A SCHOOL judged to have serious weaknesses has made a “positive start” towards its improvement, inspectors say.

Washacre Primary School in Westhoughton was marked as “inadequate” by Ofsted inspectors in December and an interim executive board is still in charge while its governing body is suspended. In December, 2011, it emerged that the school’s SATs results were cancelled after an investigation into the way the exams were conducted.

But Ofsted’s first monitoring visit of the school found the head and the interim board have made a “positive start to improving the performance of the school” and said the focus has been on improving the quality of teaching.

The Ofsted report published in December found teaching was inadequate and leadership and management required improvement. In the latest inspection inspectors praised the leadership team for “complementary skills”.

The headteacher has held meetings with every teacher to set targets. Inspectors concluded: “Members of the interim executive board continue to support and challenge the headteacher. Just prior to the inspection, the local authority invested a considerable amount of revenue to support the school.”

Experienced headteacher Jenny Haunch was appointed. She said: “I believe that every child has talents and dreams. It is our responsibility to provide the very best education so that children can have the best choices in life. I have recruited the best teachers possible and we are prepared to work hard to offer children a world class education.”

She said since September, test results had shown a rapid improvement in pupils’ skills.

Ms Haunch said: “The children will prosper and produce results which will exceed national expectations. More families choose Washacre as their first choice of school. Many children are coming to us from other schools locally. Washacre is cultivating a better reputation in the locality.”