THE summer holidays are not far off – but that’s not why these schoolchildren are celebrating.

Staff and pupils at Owslebury Primary School have big smiles on their faces after a glowing Ofsted report.

The school received a ‘good’ grade after the inspection in March, with pupils’ mature behaviour highlighted.

Headteacher Elena Ponsen was also congratulated for her “very clear vision which encompasses both high achievement and well-rounded personal development for pupils”.

The report said: “Pupils are currently achieving well. By the end of Year 6, their attainment has historically been above average, particularly in English. In Reception, children make good progress in almost all areas.

“Teaching is well planned and organised. The level of challenge for pupils is good because of the close match of tasks to the needs of the different groups in the classes with wide spans of age and ability.”

With just 87 pupils it is a smaller than average school but the headteacher said they were a hard-working, close-knit group.

Mrs Ponsen said: “We were really pleased with the result. I think it’s down to the hard work of the whole team and I think the children really stood out because of their hard work and good behaviour.

“We have a really friendly bunch of children. We have mixed year group classes because we are a small school but everyone interacts with each other and children are very supportive of each other.”

One key action set for the school was to improve pupils’ progress in maths to match achievement in reading and writing.

Mrs Ponsen added: “We are now working very hard to get to the ‘outstanding’ level. Maths is the one thing we have to work on but it was not something we did not already expect to come out in the inspection.”

Chairman of governors Sally Curtis added: “As we know, Ofsted inspections have become much tougher and everyone at Owslebury has risen to that challenge. Our headteacher and the staff team are dedicated to providing the very best for our pupils, and this was reflected in the report.”