STAFF and pupils at one New Forest school have got the New Year off with a bang by securing top marks in their latest Ofsted report.

St Ives First School was commended as being “an outstanding school in all aspects of its work” and was marked as “outstanding” in all five key areas of inspection; only ten per cent of schools in the UK have achieved such an accolade.

The lead inspector stated that this was the result of excellent leadership and management and the high-quality provision, which ensured that pupils did especially well in both academic and personal development.

She added: “An exceptional feature of the school’s work is the very high-quality system in place for guiding and supporting pupils’ progress.

“The outstanding support programmes help pupils to quickly get back on track.

“Pupils make outstanding progress in all year groups. The curriculum provides exceptionally well for the development of the pupils’ basic literacy, numeracy, investigation and technology skills, balancing this effectively with an exciting range of activities which capitalise on pupils’ interests and talents.

“High-quality planning underpins the outstanding teaching seen in all classes.”

The school’s pupils were also praised for their good behaviour.

The report said: “Behaviour is outstanding and relationships between adults and pupils and among pupils themselves are very good.

“The school is a very happy and harmonious place to be. Pupils’ great enjoyment of the school is very evident in their enthusiasm in lessons and capacity to work hard.

Mrs Laura Crossley, the school’s headteacher, said: “We are very proud of the Ofsted report.

“It is wonderful to see that all our hard work has been recognised.

“We have a dedicated and committed group of teachers, support staff and governors and extremely supportive parents.

“With the enthusiasm and ‘can do’ factor of the pupils, we have been able to prove just how outstanding our school really is.”