A STRUGGLING Basingstoke junior school could soon be out of “special measures” after inspectors from an education watchdog found it is making “reasonable progress”.

Four Lanes Community Junior School, in Hanmore Road, Chineham, was graded as “inadequate” by Ofsted in October 2013.

The school has been subjected to various monitoring visits since then, after being told to improve, and the latest report, written by additional inspector Peter Gale, said: “At this time, the school is making reasonable progress towards the removal of special measures.”

When the school was judged to be “inadequate”, inspectors found pupil progress was “too slow”, particularly in English and maths, and that “too many pupils over time have not attained as highly as they should.”

In his latest report, Mr Gale said: “The achievement of Year 6 pupils in summer 2014 was variable in reading, writing and mathematics.

“This was due to some weak teaching and a number of changes to staffing, creating discontinuity during pupils’ time at the school...Despite this, pupils made accelerated progress during their Year 6 in reading, writing and mathematics when compared to the year group that preceded them.

“Attainment for this year group was significantly above average. However, pupils’ starting points in Year 3 were significantly above average in all subjects, and so pupils’ final attainment demonstrated weak progress over time.”

He added: “Teachers now have much better information about pupils’ achievement. They are using it constructively in year groups to generate improved planning. As a result, the quality of teaching has continued to improve.”

Headteacher Corinne Martinez said to parents in a newsletter: “There is still much to do to ensure that we are good in every area, and we particularly note that we need to improve our communication of dates and information.”

She added: “Our present pupils are working extremely hard and are currently on track to make even greater progress in 2015.”