A village school has been praised for making big strides in raising standards, writes David Horne.

Inspectors congratulated Freeland CE Primary School for its high quality of teaching. Standards in the core subjects of English, maths and science were well above average by the time the children leave at 11.

The review was carried out over four days earlier this year by a team of Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education) inspectors the first at the school since 1996.

Headteacher Bobby Kay said: "We are very proud of this report. It is a professional acknowledgement that Freeland School is indeed very special."

Ms Kay was appointed in September to take charge of the school with its 103 pupils, aged four to 11. She was congratulated for the "immense contribution" she has already made.

Since the 1996 report, the quality of teaching has become "totally satisfactory", inspectors said.

They added that the children's behaviour, ethos and team spirit within the school were worthy of praise, with improvements being made by the older pupils much faster than the national trend.

"This reflects the significant improvements made to the quality of teaching since the last inspection when it was satisfactory," said the report.

The school has, however, been told to develop the role of subject leaders and put in place more formal rec- ord-keeping.

Improvements could also be made to information technology and religious education.