THE headteacher of a Trowbridge primary school is hopeful it will soon be taken out of special measures after Ofsted inspectors said it had made satisfactory progress.

Longmeadow Primary School was inspected this week and the results determine how much progress has been made in areas including overall standards, quality of teaching, leadership, and provision of education for children with special needs.

Headteacher Craig Gibbens said he is delighted satisfactory progress has been maintained overall and believes the firm foundations laid will provide a springboard to higher standards and achievement all round.

"Ofsted has said it believes the team we have in place has the capacity to move the school forward and get out of special measures," he said.

"We believe wholeheartedly we are moving in the right direction."

The school is also celebrating success in extra curricular activities after the seven-a-side football team won the final of the West Wiltshire Junior School competition on Tuesday. In December, league tables, which measure pupils' achievements in national tests, placed Longmeadow bottom in Wiltshire.

Mr Gibbens, who took over eight weeks before Longmeadow was placed in special measures in November 2005, said being labelled the worst school in Wiltshire had upset pupils, staff and the wider community.

"On a positive note this showed everyone cared because the community was upset by the headline." he said. "We are a better school than we were and have every confidence in the team's ability to turn things around."

While Mr Gibbens firmly believes the school's position in the league table does not tell the whole story, he admitted he was disappointed by the school's Value Added Score, which measures the average pupils' development from key stage one to key stage two.

He has introduced a tracking system on each child so teachers are constantly aware of the development of each pupil from the moment they start at the school.

Other measures introduced since the school was placed in special measures include the appointment of a special educational needs co-ordinator and a new deputy head, who in a recent local authority inspection was deemed outstanding'. Mr Gibbens said the most important way of improving standards was to encourage the children to be more self-analytic and self motivated to meet the challenges of their future lives.

"It's not about them attaining level this or that. We are about producing rounded children. We are just out to make them better at being themselves and encourage them to do their best," he said.

"Every adult here has to make a difference every day. We want the children to ask themselves if they've learned something in school today.

"We are pushing the academic side harder than it's ever been pushed before but not at the expense of their personal or social development.

"We want to promote a can do' culture, where every child is encouraged and supported."