CHILDREN in the early years at Stanbury Village School make outstanding progress, say Ofsted inspectors.

Inspectors said the school’s younger pupils learned at a fast pace because they were given wide range of stimulating and challenging activities.

Inspectors added that the standards met by older pupils, as they reached the end of their time at Stanbury, was also above average.

The school has been given a ‘good’ grading in all areas following the two-day inspection in April, echoing the results of the last Ofsted inspection two years ago.

The ‘good’ grades covered pupils’ achievement, quality of teaching, pupils’ behaviour and safety, and leadership and management.

Inspectors said reading standards were high, and standards in writing and mathematics at the end of both key stages were above average.

They said: “The vast majority of pupils make the progress expected of in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6.

“The proportion making better progress than this is increasing securely and rapidly.”

Inspectors said pupils had good speaking skills and behaved well, and they enjoyed going to school, where they felt very safe.

Inspectors said the teaching was good, and sometimes outstanding, and pupils learned well because they respected their teachers and found the schoolwork interesting and stimulating.

Inspectors said the head and assistant head led and managed the school well, focusing sharply on making it better.

They added: “The governing body is very supportive and has stepped up the rigour with which it holds senior leaders to account.

“The school provides a wealth of activities outside normal lessons that broaden pupils’ horizons and promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.”

Inspectors said that to become outstanding, Stanbury Village School had to set more challenging activities for pupils, especially the more able children.

Inspectors said the targets set for pupils’ progress were not always high enough.

Stanbury Village School head Graham Swinbourne said he was “really proud” that inspectors had highlighted the outstanding progress in the Foundation Stage.

He said: “I’m pleased with how well the children are doing. They consistently score well above average.

“Our end of year results were much improved, so we’ve already met most of the targets set by Ofsted.”

Mr Swinbourne praised his teaching staff for the hard work they had put in over the past year.

He added: “I’m pleased that the inspectors mentioned our exciting extra-curricular activities.”