PUPILS and staff at a North Yorkshire primary school are celebrating a are celebrating a good Ofsted inspection.

Longman’s Hill School in Selby has gone from a rating of ‘requires improvement’ to good overall.

Inspectors stated that the head teacher, Jan Elcock, has ‘provided excellent and decisive leadership’ with a ‘strong sense of purpose’ and is ‘driving improvement with vigour and determination’.

Her leadership, they said, is also supported by an ‘equally determined’ governing body and a ‘highly effective deputy head teacher’. They commended the “strong sense of teamwork” in the school.

Pupils at Longman’s Hill make good progress and in particular inspectors praised the “highly effective” teaching of phonics.

The inspection team also noted that children become good readers because they are well supported t the school. They described pupils’ personal development, behaviour and welfare as outstanding, with children showing ‘impeccable conduct both inside and outside the classrooms’.

Parents’ views of the school were overwhelmingly positive with one parent commenting to the inspection team, ‘The staff cannot do enough for the children.’

Inspectors found that currently the most able pupils are making better progress but occasionally they are not challenged sufficiently. Therefore, in order to improve even further, the school has an action plan for the most able pupils to be given more challenging opportunities to make rapid progress in reading, writing and maths.

Ms Elcock, said: “I am delighted with the Ofsted report and the judgements reached. The inspectors clearly recognised the high quality education that children at Longman’s Hill receive.

“The outstanding behaviour of pupils was clear and I am so proud of our children. The staff, governors and I have worked tirelessly to improve the school and we will continue to go from strength to strength by addressing the action point in the report regarding the most able pupils.”

Cllr Arthur Barker, North Yorkshire’s executive member for schools, said: “We wish to congratulate everybody at Longman’s Hill – staff, governors, children, parents – for the excellent progress that has been made in teaching and learning. In North Yorkshire our driving ambition is for all children to have the best start in life through their education and for all schools to be good or outstanding. Everybody pulls together at Longman’s Hill for all children to achieve highly. This has been recognised by inspectors.”