WATCHDOGS have praised the "impressive" way staff at a Bolton primary school have managed to carry on with their lessons, even though they are working on a building site.

Ofsted say management at Masefield Primary in Little Lever have managed to protect classroom standards despite major construction working going on around them.

Builders are currently revamping the school ready for when all the Masefield children move into the junior block to make room for pupils from Woodside special school, which will take over the former infants department.

Inspectors arrived at the same time as the bulldozers but concluded: "The management of the major changes, whilst protecting the quality of education provided, has been impressive."

The team found that Masefield has largely overcome weaknesses highlighted in their last report.

Teaching at Key 2, assessment procedures, lesson plans, monitoring systems, early years provision, curriculum planning and work set for more able chidlren have all been improved according to the latest report.

Strategies to improve literacy and numeracy are having a positive effect and the school has maintained standards in English and significantly improved test results in Mathematics. Science results are better but still lag behind similar schools.

Very good nursery and good reception class provision for the under fives are strengths of the school and singled out for praise, as are good teaching standards generally.

The ethos was also described as good by inspectors who said: "The caring, supportive atmosphere leads to good working relationships; pupils have good attitudes to their work."

However praiseworthy plans to iron out weaknesses in the teaching of information technology have been put on hold and pupils are not reaching the expected levels. There is also a need to clearly define the management structure, say Ofsted.

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