A PRIMARY school in Shipley has been celebrating after it received a Good rating from Ofsted, having previously been rated inadequate.

High Crags Primary Leadership Academy was praised by inspectors for the quality of its teaching, progress made by pupils, and particularly its early years teaching, which was rated outstanding.

The rating comes four years after the school, which has been operated by Star Academies Trust for the past 12 months, had been rated inadequate.

The report said: “The acting principal leads to school with clear moral purpose, and has high expectations of herself, staff and pupils.

“Staff have many opportunities to improve their skills through focused training.

“Most teaching is effective, and pupils enjoy learning in interesting classrooms where skilled staff care for and challenge them.

“Disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs receive effective support and achieve well from their starting points.

“The curriculum is broad and balanced, and supported by a wide range of extra-curricular activities.

“Early years provision is outstanding, and children do very well and are very well led.

“Reading is a strength of the school; pupils enjoy reading and books. The school’s work to develop pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural awareness is strong.

“Pupils are generally well behaved and relationships among pupils and between adults and pupils are respectful.”

Areas where the school was told to improve are making the quality of teaching consistently good across all subjects and years, and improving communication links and contact with parents.

Helen Ray, principal of High Crags, said: “I am delighted that our school has been recognised as ‘good’ overall with an ‘outstanding’ early years provision.

“I was especially pleased to read how impressed the inspectors were with the quality of teaching and the significant impact this has had on the development of our children.

“It is wonderful that all members of the school community have been praised so highly, from how our pupils demonstrate our Star values in action and our highly skilled staff, to the high standard of support we receive from our governors and Star Academies.

“I am extremely proud that the vision for the school is being realised, which is ultimately changing the lives of our pupils.

“This positive report is testament to all the hard work that has been applied over the last few years, but we won’t stop here. We want our school to be outstanding in all areas so we will continue to make further improvements to help our pupils achieve even more.”

Hamid Patel, chief executive of Star Academies, added: “It is incredibly pleasing the hard work and dedication of staff, governors, pupils and parents in transforming the school has been recognised by Ofsted.

“Thank you to everyone who has contributed to making High Crags Primary a fantastic learning establishment that is achieving what Star Academies set out to achieve – to nurture today’s young people and inspire tomorrow’s leaders.”