Bracknell

St Joseph's Catholic Primary School is an outstanding Bracknell school say inspectors from the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted).

The Ofsted inspection team visited the Bracknell Forest Borough Council school earlier this month and their report gives it a grade one, outstanding school rating.

The report says: "Led by an outstanding headteacher and latterly acting headteacher, all those in the school have high expectations of pupils and themselves and work tirelessly to innovate.

"Consequently, the curriculum, which is based on practical, fun learning experiences, receives a big 'thumbs up' from the children, who say, 'learning is exciting here!'"

St Joseph's Catholic Primary School's work on personal development and wellbeing and its curriculum are highlighted as areas of outstanding quality.

The inspectors' key findings in summary are:

. Pupils achievement is exceptionally outstanding due to an exciting, stimulating curriculum;

. Standards in English, mathematics and science are significantly better than the national average;

. Pupils' personal development and wellbeing are outstanding;

. There is a positive learning ethos and teaching is consistently good with outstanding features;

. There is an unrelenting focus on pupil achievement and continual improvement;

. Staffing levels are generous and the skills of the teaching assistant team are utilised carefully to maximise support for the youngest children and pupils with specific additional needs.

As in all Ofsted reports the inspectors make recommendations for improvement which at St Joseph's Catholic Primary School are further improving the measurement of pupils' progress and monitoring of targets.

Juanita Dunlop, acting headteacher at St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, Bracknell said: "We are delighted that the inspectors recognised the many outstanding qualities that make St Joseph's such an effective school.

"We were especially pleased that Ofsted recognised our unrelenting focus on pupil wellbeing, achievement and continual improvement.

"The recommendation to focus more on the children's targets when marking their work is something which we have already begun to focus on."

Tony Eccleston, Director of Education, Bracknell Children's Services and Libraries, said: "The inspectors rightly highlight the school's many strengths in their report including the school's many outstanding features.

"The school is providing an extremely high quality of education and I am pleased the inspection team has recognised this."

Cllr Alan Ward, Executive Member for Education and Libraries, said: "I am pleased to see this school continues to deliver outstanding standards.

"This report shows there is excellent quality throughout the school and I congratulate the acting headteacher and her team on this achievement."

Bracknell Forest Borough Council