TEACHERS, children and parents from Highampton are celebrating, after the village school received a glowing report from Ofsted inspectors recently.

The team found the school, at the centre of the foot and mouth crisis this year, the fulcrum of the local community.

The report stated: 'Highampton is a highly effective school, providing a very good quality of education with some excellent aspects.

'Very good teaching impacts significantly upon pupils' very good learning.'

The attainment of children starting school was close close to the national average — but by the time children left, it was far above expected levels.

And inspectors had great praise for the teaching team at the 36-pupil school.

'Relationships are excellent — the dedicated headteacher, Jill Bevis, leads with imagination and purpose,' said the report.

'She has the active commitment and support of governors and staff.'

The report found the overall quality of teaching and learning was very good, with 69 per cent of lessons being judged as excellent or very good — no lessons were found to be unsatisfactory.

Inspectors found that pupils' attitudes to school were very positive, their behaviour was good and relationships were excellent.

Attendance had obviously fallen during the foot and mouth outbreaks, but the local community and school had shown 'admirable fortitude' in rebounding from the crisis.

Mrs Bevis said: 'I am so pleased for everyone who is associated with Highampton Primary School in achieving such a magnificent Ofsted report.'

There was just one area highlighted for improvement — the need for additional teaching and administrative space.

But this is about to be remedied.

Plans and building regulations for an extra classroom and other new rooms have been approved and the tender process is about to begin.

Funds of approximately £30,000 have been secured from the Government and the remaining half is being sought from elsewhere.

Mrs Bevis said it promised to be an exciting development for the school and would provide a new classroom and cloakroom for children in Class One and also a staff and resources room.

'The old classroom will become a community resource room which will house a library and computer suite and provide much needed space where small groups can work with a teacher,' she said.

'In the evenings we are planning to offer accredited basic skills computer courses to the community plus make the computers available for secondary school or college pupils to do their homework and local residents to use for business or whatever.'

Mrs Bevis said the expansion was to cater for the school needs now, not in the future.

'This is a very small school with 42 pupils but the staff room space at present is one office and there is nowhere for children with special needs to go,' she said.

'We have talked about having an additional classroom for years so we have decided to go for it even though there are no funds from the county council — we are seeking support from elsewhere if anyone would like to help.'

The plans will be available for everyone to see on September 28 when the school will have a cheese and wine evening to launch the community website.

The other major project for Highampton primary this year is its participation in the School Centred Initial Teacher Training scheme, which provides accessible training opportunities for teaching students who prefer not to live away from home.

Mrs Bevis said the scheme was an alternative to the traditional college teacher training and the school would be gaining two students this year.

'This project will bring additional expertise into the classroom which the children will benefit from,' she said.