A HIGHWORTH primary has become the last school in the Swindon area to be taken out of special measures status.

The town is now one of 36 local authorities nationwide that can boast the clean record.

Northview Primary has turned around its poor Ofsted rating in just over a year and announced the good news yesterday.

The school was put into special measures in October 2005 due to "widespread weaknesses", when the former headteacher, who is now reinstated, was on secondment.

The inspectors ruled the school did not have an "ordered environment," when they saw children running up and down the corridors and coats lying on the floor.

After the damning judgement, Northview overhauled its structure. Changes it made included tidying the building, locking the front gate and appointing pupils to a new democratic council. It focused on raising standards, improving leadership and management and tackling under-achievement.

Ofsted now describes the 171-pupil school as "calm" and "ordered" following a two-day inspection in February and the rating has risen to "satisfactory".

Headteacher Robert Bromberg said the school had endured a "painful" time but had emerged better for the experience.

"The school failed across the board particularly with issues regarding care," he said.

"Special measures is a painful experience for parents, staff and pupils, however the journey has led the school to be a much stronger and effective institution than it was at the time of rating."

He said a high staff turnover before the Ofsted judgement contributed to the failure.

"We are now confident that we have a system in place to manage staff changes in the future," he said.

The school has acquired more staff and created new roles.

He said: "We operated a non-blame culture where we all accepted the responsibility and worked hard together to address everything that went wrong."

The pupils are also having a say in how the school is run.

They can get appointed to a special council, which collects ideas from the children and recommends changes.

"At the moment, the student council have discovered that the toilets need refurbishing," said Mr Bromberg.

"They will put a proposal and PowerPoint presentation in front of the governing body with their suggestions."

The head and Andy Gibbs, chairman of governors, thanked all concerned for their hard work, support and loyalty.

Coun Garry Perkins, cabinet member for children's services, congratulated the school.

"Well done to Northview Primary. The quality of education at the school has improved steadily under the leadership of the headteacher, dedicated staff and the excellent governors," he said.

"This good news means no schools in the Swindon borough are in special measures.

"This is a marvellous position to be in as a local authority but we must continue to maintain these standards and keep aiming high. This can only benefit children now and in the future."

Eleven other Swindon schools have been in special measures since 1995. The council took over the education services from Wiltshire County Council in 1997.