A MARTON school which turned its failing fortunes around has been praised in an Ofsted report.

Mereside Primary School, Langdale Road, was placed under special measures in January 2000 after an Ofsted inspection declared the school was failing to give pupils an acceptable level of education.

But just 18 months later the school was out of special measures and on the way to being praised for its quality and standards in the Annual Report on Quality and Standard in Education 2000/20001, published this week.

Jonathan Clucas, Head of Key Stage 2 at the school, said the amount of effort put in by head teacher Steve Burton, the staff and pupils had paid off.

"We have changed the focus of the lessons so they are sharper and the learning objectives are clearer, and we have had excellent leadership from the head teacher and a very big team effort," he said.

"The children have responded very well. They don't really understand it all but what they do realise is that we are now one of the schools in Blackpool that people want to send their children to, so they are very proud of their achievement."

Speaking about the Ofsted report, HM Chief Inspector Mike Tomlinson said: "As in previous years, this report identifies particularly successful schools.

"These schools have received an outstanding inspection report and have performed well in national tests and public examinations, give the circumstances of the school."

About 4,450 schools were inspected in the year 2000/20001 and the report lists 348 particularly successful schools, of which 224 are primary schools.