A HEADTEACHER today sent a message of support to East Lancashire's struggling schools - and stressed it is possible to turn things around.

The comments followed the Government's controversial league tables for the performance of 11-year-olds which painted a mixed picture for the area.

For every school that made it into the top 200 national tables, there was one in the bottom 200.

John Nuttall's school, St James' Primary in Haslingden, was listed eighth in the country in the value added tables, which highlight the progress pupils make rather than simply recording the number that meet the minimum targets.

But when Mr Nuttall first came to the school in 1994, Ofsted inspectors had classed the school as having "serious weaknesses." He said: "I knew taking on the school was going to be a challenge but it was one I was looking forward to.

"The year I took over as head we also got a new deputy head and chair of school governors, and I think together we had fresh ideas and saw the potential that our excellent teachers and children had.

"Since then we have employed more fantastic teachers and the standards in the classrooms have come on in leaps and bounds."

Mr Nuttall said he has worked closely with the local education authority in literacy and numeracy projects and believes that his team's dedication to thorough planning of lessons has been behind the success.

He added: "We have a real sense of working as a team at the school and make sure that the whole school feels involved by being kept fully informed about life in the school.

"We don't have it easy as 65 per cent of our children have English as another language but the nursery opening in 1997 has definitely made a difference to their language.

"Haslingden has some really deprived areas and to be recognised as the eighth in the country is a fantastic achievement fur our school, for Haslingden and for Lancashire." Staff at St Mary's RC Primary, also in Haslingden, work closely with St James's and has achieved similar success, coming fifth nationally in the value added tables.

For value added measure, Blackburn with Darwen had St Francis, Lower Darwen, St Anne's and St Alban's schools in the national top 200.

Lancashire County Council had Primrose Hill, Euxton; Laneshawbridge; Accrington's St John and St Augustine; Colne's Christ Church and Coupe Green on the list.