MANCHESTER United has helped transform a problem school into a top performer.

United offered the pupils of truancy-hit Abbott Primary a training session if they stopped skipping classes - and the result has been spectacular.

Attendance has gone up by 93 per cent, and the school in Collyhurst, inner-city Manchester, has received a glowing Ofsted report.

Inspectors had hardly a word of criticism and described efforts to improve attendance as ''excellent''.

They praised everything from teaching and discipline to the leadership and improvement in learning.

Progress

Their report concluded that major progress had been made in all areas and standards were in the top five per cent of those at similar schools since the last inspection in 1996.

Learning mentor Sue Jones asked United to help after hearing Sir Alex Ferguson praise a Salford teenager for kicking his truanting days into touch.

Sir Alex said: ''No one dodges training at United. You know why? Because I kick them around the office.''

The club responded to Sue's plea by offering a free training session to the best attendees.

Headteacher Heather Riley today praised United and said the Ofsted report was a major boost for the school, pupils and staff.

She said: ''We have had a learning mentor whose brief is to work with children and parents to improve attendance on a daily basis.

Rewards

''The reward scheme was part of this and very effective indeed because all the children wanted to go to Manchester United.''

She added: ''One of the main reasons for what we've achieved is that we have managed to make sure there are two adults in every classroom.

''This is an ideal set up and at any one time there is always a teacher plus either a learning monitor, a classroom assistant or a nursery nurse.''

Ofsted inspector Lesley Clark said the dramatic improvement in attendance was a ''strong contributing factor to the school's success''.

The area in the report for parents to list what they would like to see improved is blank.

Joanne Gibbs works as a classroom assistant at Abbott Primary and her nine-year-old son Lee is a pupil.

She explained that parents and children now feel valued.

She said: ''You only have to look at the kids on their way to school, they are happy to go and look forward to it.''

In 1998, education chiefs reversed a decision to shut the Rochdale Road school after parents and teachers insisted it was too good to close.