A BURY high school which Ofsted declared required improvement has taken "effective action" to address the issues raised in its last inspection.

That was the positive judgment by Her Majesty's Inspector (HMI) Janet Palmer following a monitoring visit to Elton High School.

She met with headteacher Mr Adrian Calvert, other members of the senior leadership team, a group of students, a local authority representative and members of the governors' school improvement committee.

Ms Palmer also spent time looking at the Walshaw Road school's rapid improvement plan, review of pupil premium, review of governance, current data and information about the school.

Following an inspection in February, Ofsted concluded that Elton High School required improvement because too few students made good progress in key subjects and that leaders' evaluation of the school's strengths were not always accurate and did not properly identify where improvements were needed.

The report also stated that teaching did not always meet the needs of groups of students and did not ensure that students learn quickly enough, particularly the disadvantaged, least able and middle-ability students.

Ms Palmer's visit, described by the school as an "extremely positive experience", involved her making a judgment followed by a structured commentary.

The main conclusion of the judgment was that "leaders and governors are taking effective action to address the issues raised in the Ofsted inspection."

She also stated: "The school has moved quickly to address the areas for improvement identified in the report. Many of the targets in the post-inspection rapid improvement plan have already been actioned and success criteria have been met. Students enjoy being at Elton High and particularly like their teachers, which one boy described as ‘joyful’.

"Following the last inspection the school has undertaken a review of governance. The report gave a very positive account of the skills, expertise and commitment of the governing body."

Mr Calvert said: "I would like to personally thank all of our students, parents, staff and governors for their continued support of the school. The hard work and dedication of our staff and students is clear to see and has been confirmed during the HMI visit. We are very pleased that she has recognised the many strengths that we have as a school.

"As headteacher, it is pleasing to see that our hard work is recognised in ensuring that students get the best possible experiences and this positive report in conjunction with the building of our brand new school, where work has recently begun, means that the future for the Elton High School is looking very bright.”