STANDARDS at a Whitefield primary school are rising fast, although there is still plenty of improvement to be made.

Ofsted inspectors found Mersey Drive County Primary School was providing a satisfactory education, but standards were still below the national average.

Satisfactory leadership and management from headteacher Chris Riley had improved results and the school had made good progress since the last inspection in 2001.

Pupils performed well in science and PE and good improvements had been made to IT and pupils' attendance.

Provision for pupils with special educational needs was good and the pupils achieved well in the main school and in the unit for autistic students.

Almost all the lessons inspected were good or satisfactory, with ten per cent classed as very good.

However, the report said, in some classes, the most able pupils were not sufficiently challenged and teachers needed to tailor the work better to the pupils' needs.

Standards in writing were well below average and pupils' speaking skills were particularly weak.

On the plus side, pupils enjoyed going to school and parents were very happy with the progress their children make and the approachability of the staff.

Lead inspector Mrs Barbara Doughty said: "There has been satisfactory improvement since the last inspection. Standards have risen at a greater rate than nationally. Teachers' marking is still inconsistent, and the arrangements for finding out and improving teaching and learning are still not as effective as they could be."

Headteacher Mr Chris Riley said: "Our SATs results compare with similar schools and our children do better in science. The inspectors acknowledged that the high number of children in the school with special needs has had an impact on our overall standards of attainment.

"While the inspectors found that pupils generally perform as well as they are able, we acknowledge that we need to provide further challenge for the most able children."

He added: "It is especially pleasing to see the quality of most of our lessons rated as good or very good because, under the current framework for inspections, it is much harder to achieve such grades than it was when the school was previously inspected."