The school is described as a welcoming and positive community, where pupils behave well, enjoy lessons and work hard.

There is an outstanding governing body, determined leadership and good teaching, while attainment has improved year on year and is now in line with national averages at the end of year six.

Inspector Jonathan Palk said that, although pupils begin school from below average starting points, achievement is good largely due to the "significant contribution" made by a highly skilled team of assistants.

"The attainment and personal needs of all pupils are carefully monitored and the provision is adjusted successfully.

"The good curriculum has some outstanding features that enrich pupils' personal development and contribute to an atmosphere of inclusion.

"Under the determined leadership of the executive headteacher and associate headteacher, a culture has been established where each individual is valued, self-determination is embedded and aspirations are high for everyone," Mr Palk said.

He said staff morale was high, weak elements of learning were "tackled robustly" and there was a good capacity for continued improvement.

He found that the best lessons moved at a good pace, although not all lessons offered sufficient guidance to pupils on what they needed to do to improve.

Mr Palk noted a restructured middle leadership team was at early stage of role development and recommended the team was more involved in raising achievements by better monitoring and evaluation and by drawing up action plans with clear time scales.

He also called for the proportion of good teaching to increase to 85 per cent by ensuring all teachers used assessment information consistently and extended the use of dialogue and probing questions in lessons.

The report found that over the last four years, Danesfield's national curriculum test results had improved steadily and said pupils with special educational needs were supported exceptionally well.

"The school's own reliable and accurate analysis shows that the majority of pupils of all abilities across the school are meeting aspirational targets and patterns of achievement across the groups of pupils are more consistent.

"However, good teaching is not yet sufficiently, or consistently, present in all lessons to allow the school to reduce the amount of intensive intervention and move to more sustainable good quality learning in lessons for all pupils," Mr Palk said.

He said some teaching was "extremely effective" and teachers generally possessed a strong subject knowledge.

However, that knowledge was not always used effectively in lessons to enthuse or challenge pupils to make better progress.

"There are too few opportunities for teachers to listen to pupils, observe or question them during lessons in order to reshape tasks and develop their thinking," Mr Palk said.

But he noted the curriculum had been strengthened to provide more experiences to match pupils' needs: "This is reflected in some excellent individualised programmes for gifted and talented pupils, young carers and those who have special educational needs and or disabilities," the inspector said.

He said students had many opportunities to get involved with their local community and the school's wide-range of extra curricular clubs and activities were highly valued and well supported.

Pupils were found to apply themselves well in lessons, bullying was dealt with effectively and behaviour around school was good.

The report concluded: "The headteacher and his senior leadership team have been successful in creating a caring ethos in the school in which all pupils are valued and respected.

"The unwavering belief that everyone can achieve the highest possible goals is woven into the outstanding support from senior leaders for focused professional development and training.

"The blend of expert training, with judicious use made of expertise within the school team, has resulted in a workforce capable of sustaining the good rate of improvement and improving teaching the learning further."

The inspector praised senior leaders for continuously monitoring what was and was not working and added: "When practice is not as good as it should be, action is taken quickly to bring about improvement."

Photo: Steve Guscott