A school in Oldham which was rated inadequate by Ofsted earlier this year has responded after a recent inspection noted some progress had been made.

Waterhead Academy on Huddersfield Road in Lees was rated 'inadequate' across three out of four key categories by the education watchdog earlier this year.

A joint report by five Ofsted inspectors following the school's inspection noted "unruly" students, "poor behaviour", "foul and abusive language" were present at the school, as well as name-calling and homophobic and racist language.

Pupils were quoted as being "fed up" and "unhappy" with the situation, with the inspectors writing: "Pupils are not getting a good deal at Waterhead Academy."

Last month, Ofsted inspector Niamh Howlett visited the school for a monitoring visit to check on progress.

Read more: Oldham school rife with 'foul' language and 'unruly' students makes marginal progress

She said leaders have made progress to improve the school but said "more work is necessary for the school to be no longer judged as requiring special measures".

In Ms Howlett's letter to the principal, she found leaders have "accepted" the weaknesses identified at the previous inspection which led to "urgent and effective" actions to tackle the most pressing shortcomings, particularly the students' behaviour.

Now, leaders at Waterhead Academy have responded to Ms Howlett's observations.

Principal James Wilson, who joined the school in January this year, said: “We are pleased with the feedback we have received from the first monitoring visit as well as having the opportunity to discuss the work we have put in over the past year to support the required improvements for our students, their families, our staff and the wider community.

“It was great to hear the feedback that leaders have made progress to improve the school, have taken effective actions and that they feel that our comprehensive action plan includes a range of appropriate strategies to bring about further improvement.

“We look forward to welcoming them back later this year to show them that we have progressed even further.”

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Kash Rafiq, executive principal at Waterhead Academy, said: "The academy has made rapid progress in a short period of time, and we will continue to have an unwavering commitment to deliver the very best for our school community under our leadership.

"I’d like to thank every member of our team who helped to show the inspectors how all of our hard work is helping to secure improvements to the quality of education for children at Waterhead Academy."

The Ofsted report which rated the school inadequate highlighted issues surrounding bullying, truancy, curriculum and the delivery of curriculum as major issues.

Following Ms Howlett's monitoring visit, she said staff and pupils told her of improvements in behaviour, although some problems still persisted.

She noted a decline in suspensions and that an increase in staff had helped curb truancy and disruption and that there had been "positive changes" to the curriculum.

However, she said absences were still an issue, there is still a high number of students who are removed from class to be taught in isolation units where the education "is not good enough" and that the curriculum changes were still in their infancy.