Ofsted reports are an effective tool to help parents decide which school they'd like their children to attend.

Inspectors from the education watchdog, which is also known as The Office for Standards in Education, visit schools to review their performance, assessing anything from the quality of teaching to pupils' behaviour.

At the end of their visit, they produce a report detailing their findings and giving the school one of four ratings: outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate.

In Salisbury, the vast majority of schools are rated as good, according to the Government website.

Six have been rated as outstanding at their latest inspection.

These are the six schools in Salisbury that have achieved the highest ratings by Ofsted.

Bishop Wordsworth's School 

Salisbury Journal:

Bishop Wordsworth's School in The Close was rated as outstanding following an inspection in 2006 - six years before it became an academy.

It is worth noting that most schools previously judged to be outstanding are inspected less often than schools rated as inadequate or requiring improvement.

Its most recent Ofsted report reads: "The quality of the curriculum is outstanding and leads to exceptionally high standards and achievement. Students are offered a large number of GCSE and A-level courses that suit their aptitudes and needs very well."

In 2010, Ofsted decided to push back their next full inspection following a positive review of the school's performance.

Broad Chalke Primary School

Inspectors rated this "smaller-than-average-sized" primary school as outstanding in 2012.

Here are some of the report's key findings: "All groups of pupils make rapid progress and by Year 6 attainment in English and mathematics is high.

"Teaching is outstanding and all teachers assess pupils very carefully, regularly setting targets for improvement.

"A creative, exciting and exceptionally well planned curriculum fully engages pupils, ensuring that they are highly motivated to learn."

Greentrees Primary School

Salisbury Journal:

Judged in 2015 and rated as outstanding in all five categories: leadership and management; behaviour and safety of pupils; quality of teaching; achievement of pupils; early years provision.

In their report, inspectors wrote: "The headteacher, leaders and managers have maintained a relentless focus on sustaining outstanding teaching. Standards have remained well above average.

"From their starting points, pupils make outstanding progress in reading, writing and mathematics. This means their achievement is outstanding."

Sarum St Paul's

Sarum St Paul’s Church of England Primary School in Westminster Road was inspected in 2014.

The report's key findings read: "The school’s outstanding commitment to developing pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is reflected in the pupils’ exemplary behaviour. They have a strong desire to learn in lessons and they conduct themselves well out of lessons. 

"Achievement is outstanding, with the attainment at the end of Years 2 and 6 consistently above the national average. A high proportion of pupils make better than expected progress."

Woodford Valley CoE

Salisbury Journal:

This primary school, which became an academy in 2012, was last inspected in 2009. 

Its Ofsted report says: "This is an outstanding school, with some quite exceptional features. Leadership and management are outstanding.

"The relatively new headteacher provides excellent leadership whilst skilfully enabling others to take on major roles of responsibility.

"All leaders fulfil their roles very well and relish the professional opportunities to introduce and lead new initiatives."

Wyndham Park Infants' School

Wyndham Park was inspected in 2014, the year before it received academy status.

Key findings: "Pupils achieve outstandingly well. All pupils, including the most able, those in receipt of additional funding and those who are disabled or have special educational needs, share in the outstanding progress.

"Attainment has been consistently high, so that pupils leave Year 2 with levels of attainment in reading, writing and mathematics that are well above average."

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