LIDEN Primary School has been crowned a good school by Ofsted following an inspection by the education watchdog last month.

The school, in Liden Drive, is celebrating its achievements this week after improving from a ‘requires improvement’ level to a ‘good’.

Inspectors particularly praised children’s continuing progress and attainment, as well as some of the “outstanding” teaching that made this possible, and said the improvements were down to effective leadership at the school.

Headteacher Vikki Marsh-Ballard, who took the helm in 2010, was delighted with the results.

She said: “I am immensely proud of our achievement and I am privileged to be able to continuing to lead our whole school team from strength to strength as we continue our journey.

“Our children are an absolute credit to our community. Their enthusiasm for learning is boundless and I am enormously proud of their achievements, both academic and personal, which the report celebrates.

“Our children form the heart of our school and our staff and governors work entirely for their benefit. We are extremely proud of them all.

“I am delighted that this report has recognised the talents of my staff and their commitment in delivering the best education for our children.

“We are very well supported by our parents and governors, all of which helps provide a caring and effective learning environment in which our happy and motivated children thrive.”

In the report inspectors particularly championed the lively approach to teaching and guidance, saying: “The quality of teaching is good and sometimes outstanding. The headteacher and governors ensure that leaders with outstanding teaching skills use these well to develop other teachers.

“The rise in standards since the last inspection demonstrates that all pupils now make good progress throughout the school.

“A lively approach to teaching and strong guidance in developing the right attitudes to learning support pupils well. As a result their behaviour is good. They enjoy school and attend regularly.”

The report also said that the school needed to make two improvements before it could be considered an outstanding school, which included improving standards in writing to the same standards as reading by providing more writing opportunities, and for teachers to have higher expectations of their pupils.

Ms Marsh-Ballard said: “We have focused relentlessly on improving teaching and learning and making sure that teaching styles are consistent.

“We have worked on moving away from structured lessons to a more interactive style, where teachers are more facilitators within the classroom.

“The recommendations for improvement are not something we were not aware of and we are actively putting them right.”

To view the report online for yourself visit http://reports.ofsted. gov.uk.