STAFF and pupils at Carterton Primary School are celebrating after the school jumped two places up the Ofsted grade scale and came out of special measures.

The school was graded ‘inadequate’ after an inspection in December 2013, but after after its most recent inspection on May 19 to 20, inspectors were so impressed by the school’s progress they graded it ‘good’ — bypassing the ‘requires improvement’ grade altogether.

Headteacher Elaine Day said she was delighted with the result, but not surprised at the progress the school, which has 245 children on its roll, has made in recent years.

She said: “I’m amazingly chuffed. It’s been really hard work since December.

“I don’t think there’s ever really any great secret in improving performance.”

Mrs Day added: “It’s about striving for excellence and believing in improving what the children get from their educational experience.

“Ofsted changed its criteria in December 2013 so it was very important to find out exactly what they required. Learning is now at the forefront.

“You could have a great practitioner teaching really well but if they were not having an impact on what the pupils were learning they’d be termed inadequate.”

The school was graded ‘good’ in all five key categories of leadership and management, behaviour and safety of pupils, quality of teaching, achievement of pupils and early years provision.

The report said: “Pupils achieve well. They make good progress in lessons and over time. Teachers and teaching assistants work well together to make sure the pupils achieve good progress.

“Pupils’ behaviour is good. The systems to keep pupils safe are robust.”

Mrs Day said the school was already making good progress to come out of special measures when she was in her previous post at Carterton Community College, so wasn’t surprised by the Ofsted grade.

The report added that the school was not yet outstanding because “not enough pupils achieve the highest levels at the end of Key Stage 2; occasionally pupils lose concentration when work is not challenging enough for them; and because sometimes work set does not challenge pupils enough.”

But Mrs Day vowed: “We will be heading for that next.”