Staff and children are celebrating after a primary school was rated as “good” by Ofsted.

A report on Halfway Houses was published last week following a visit by three inspectors on April 29 and 30.

The school, in Southdown Road, Halfway, has progressed since its previous inspection when it received a “requires improvement” rating.

The report states: “The head teacher has maintained a relentless focus on bringing about improvements in teaching.

“He has developed a strong leadership team who understand well their part in bringing this about.”

The curriculum was praised for providing a wide range “very interesting” topics while the report also found: “Pupils have very positive attitudes towards learning, their work and each other.”

It adds that children are “polite and courteous”.

On the quality of teaching, inspectors said: “Teachers work closely together to develop tasks which are usually well matched to the different needs of the pupils in their classes.”

The achievement of pupils at in the early years and by the end of Key Stage 2 was found to be good, however, progress in Key Stage 1 was found to be slower.

The school missed out on an “outstanding” rating as inspectors decided teachers do not always expect enough of the most able youngsters, improvements in English grammar had not been as rapid as other subjects and not all teachers had implemented the best practices developed in the school.

Head teacher Ryan Driver put the positive report down to the “absolute strength” of the leadership team and “the determination to improve the school for the children”.

He said: “A big part of our report is the children and the fact that the children are fully involved in their own learning and helping each other to move on.

“We have such great children here, they really sold our school.

“We are good now so we are heading for outstanding next because our children deserve it.”

Mr Driver added one of the children told an inspector: “We are not Halfway, we are all the way.”