A WATCHET school thrown into special measures over a year ago continues to see the green shoots of recovery following a successful Oftsed inspection.

A report monitoring Knights Templar First School’s progress released this week revealed it was making good progress.

The visit to the Liddymore Road school, carried out on March 2, was the fourth monitoring inspection since the school became subject to special measures in November 2008.

Oftsed inspector Grahame Sherfield said Year 4 pupils were making the necessary progress towards achieving “challenging” targets for the summer of 2010 and that Year 2 standards were set to improve “significantly” on those achieved in 2009.

Acting head teacher Heather Good said: “I am absolutely delighted with the outcome. Progress has been consistently good now across three terms and continues to rapidly improve, which is down to the hard work of staff and governors.”

One area highlighted for improvement in Mr Sherfield’s last visit in January was the need for a progression in pupils’ standards, particularly in numeracy in Year 3 and 4 – his latest report revealed that progress was good.

He said pupils behaved well in lessons and around the school, they were enthusiastic and interested in their work, and noted that on several occasions during his visit pupils spontaneously applauded those who had read out some of their work to the class.

He said teachers had also responded well since his last visit, particularly in Year 3 and 4.

Mr Sherfield said Mrs Good continued to lead the school’s improvement well.

The school will welcome a permanent head teacher, Frances Burns, in September.