STANDARDS are on the up at a school which was found to be "failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education".

Ofsted placed Lever Park School into special measures in January after it found the school, which educates youngsters with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties, to be inadequate.

All areas of the school apart from quality of the teaching — which was said to require improvement — were given the lowest grade four rating.

Now, following another inspection, the watchdog has found that standards are rising.

The governing body has been replaced by an interim executive board and Paul Hodgkinson, head of the outstanding-rated Bolton Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) has been appointed as interim executive headteacher.

A recent monitoring inspection by Ofsted found that Mr Hodgkinson and senior leaders had taken "immediate action to improve the quality of education Lever Park" with the local authority securing the support needed to bring about "rapid and sustained improvement".

Inspectors said: "The interim executive headteacher is providing a strong drive for improvement.

"He has quickly gained the confidence and trust of his colleagues and the wider school community."

They added: "The school's improvement plan has a sharp focus on the actions needed to improve the quality of education of Lever Park."

Mr Hodgkinson said pupils were already making above expected progress.

He said: "It has gone very well since the inspection in November.

"Processes that enable pupils to master new skills, more rigorous scrutiny of standards in teaching and appropriate challenge for all pupils has seen large percentages of children make expected or above expected progress in the last term.

"Additional opportunities are also in place for those pupils who require extra support.

"Safeguarding systems have been improved and a fresh approach to behaviour management has seen large numbers of children thrive in our new environment."

He added: "The new Governing Body is providing excellent support and challenge and the Local Authority together with local mainstream schools remain very supportive.

"We will continue to push on with the Improvement schedule after Easter and hope to see more progress in the coming months."

A Bolton Council spokesman said: “We are pleased to see the progress that is being made and will continue to assist the school where we can.”