A SCHOOL is celebrating after being rated ‘good’ and only narrowly missing out on an ‘outstanding’ grade from watchdogs.

Honywood School, which has almost 800 pupils, scored ‘good’ in all areas after a two-day inspection in December.

The glowing Ofsted report says: “Pupils enjoy learning at the Honywood School.

“They are polite and respectful. They develop positive working relationships with staff.

“A strong sense of community exists within the school. Pupils feel and are safe.

“Pupils strive to achieve the high expectations set by staff, and to live by the school’s core values of trust, respect, equity and excellence.

“All pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, benefit from an ambitious, well-designed and well-taught curriculum.

“The school community celebrates differences between people. Pupils aim to treat others as they want to be treated themselves.

“They learn about discrimination and bullying. On the rare occasions when these behaviours happen, they are confident that staff will help them.”

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The only areas identified as needing to improve were attendance and reading.

The report says: “While reading is prioritised in the school, not all pupils are confident, engaged readers.”

It adds: “Some pupils do not attend school regularly enough. As a result, these pupils risk falling behind.

“Leaders need to ensure that they continue to work with families and continue to implement strategies that will rapidly improve pupils’ attendance.”

In a letter to parents, headteacher James Saunders said: “Whilst we have never done things to satisfy Ofsted or jumped onto the latest Ofsted bandwagon, it is nice to have up to date confirmation at a national level that we are providing a great education for the children within our community.”

Mr Saunders was pleased with the ‘good’ rating, but said: “What the report does not tell you is how close we came to an outstanding grading.”

He added: “We will continue with our journey and our mission to be the beating heart of the community and to develop well rounded learners so that they leave as happy and successful individuals with the confidence to tackle any challenge that life throws at them.

"If we continue to work together on our improvement journey then, as the inspection team stated before they departed, we could be in the position to be judged 'outstanding' the next time they visit.”