A primary school labelled inadequate has made encouraging steps in the right direction.

Rosherville Church of England Primary School, in London Road, Northfleet, was found to have made satisfactory progress during a follow-up visit by government inspectors.

It was put in special measures by Ofsted after an inspection in February 2012.

Ofsted grades schools as either outstanding, good, requiring improvement or inadequate. Inadequate schools are then graded as either having serious weaknesses which require significant improvement which inspectors feel can be achieved through monitoring, or are placed in special measures, as they need more help.

In his latest report, inspector David Scott said: “Year 6 pupils have made good progress in their reading and are making faster progress than their peers nationally. Across the school, progress in reading is also improving more rapidly.

“Pupils’ attitudes to learning and behaviour in lessons and around the school continue to be generally positive and continue to improve.

"This demonstrates the success of senior leaders’ drive to raise expectations and engender a positive work ethic.”

He noted that the youngest children had made strides in communication and language as well as their personal, social and emotional development and that they settle in well.

The hard work and positive steps taken in a short time by staff was also singled out for praise.

Mr Scott said:“In a very short period of time, the principal and vice-principal through their determination and vision for the school have created a welcoming and calm ethos.”

However, marking was criticised.

Mr Scott said: “In some pupils’ books seen during the inspection, spelling errors were left uncorrected and poor presentation was tolerated in too many cases.

“Also, when marking had identified areas for improvement these were not followed up to check if pupils have fully understood them and, in several cases, errors persisted for a number of weeks.”

It was also said that there were not enough opportunities for pupils to write at length and that some children had problems with writing, weak spelling, punctuation and grammar skills.