A SHIRLEY primary school is well on the way to gaining a "good" Ofsted rating, its head teacher said this week.
Orchard Way Primary was judged to be only "satisfactory" when inspectors visited in November last year.
Then, while agreeing pupils made expected progress and were well behaved, the inspectors ruled that the overall achievement of pupils and the quality of teaching and leadership and management needed to improve.
Now, following a first monitoring inspection, Ofsted has sent a letter to head teacher Elizabeth Blake approving steps taken to tackle the problems.
The letter says: "The school improvement plan has sensible priorities and addresses all the areas for improvement identified in the recent inspection.
"The plan includes appropriate actions and has sensible timescales and success criteria for judging progress."
Miss Blake said she had been told that there would be no further monitoring reports and that the next full inspection, to judge the school's progress, will be held in a year's time.
She added: "We are definitely on course to get a good Ofsted report then because the inspectors are happy with what we are doing."