Inspectors have praised a primary school rated as 'needing improvement' by Ofsted for the positive changes they are making.

While Castle Cary Primary School still needs improvements, a monitoring visit by Ofsted inspector Ben Jordan saw the staff's hard work to get the school back up to a 'good' standard.

He noted staff chances and said the school had been working hard to address the weaknesses found in previous reports.

Inspector Jordan highlighted the work done to improve early-years reading, and said the overhauling of the curriculum was having a positive impact on the children. He said the children he spoke to were positive about their learning and had good things to say about the school.

He said that staff at the school were positive and clear about their roles, and that the headteacher was supported by staff, parents and the school governors.

For the next steps on the road to improvement, he said the school should:

• evaluate the impact of the recently revised early years curriculum to ensure that it meets the needs of all pupils
• ensure that systems for assessing what pupils know and can do are embedded across all wider curriculum subjects.

In a letter to parents and carers, headteacher Sarah Martin said: "There are, of course, areas for us to work upon but we were thrilled that the hard work and commitment of everyone in the school was recognised."