A BURNLEY school has praised by an education watchdog for the 'outstanding progress of its disadvantaged pupils'.

Ofsted gave Stoneyholme Community Primary School an 'outstanding' rating after a team of inspectors visited the Oswald Street school last month.

Inspectors hailed the school's leadership and management, behaviour and safety of the pupils and the quality of the teaching as well as pupil achievements and the early years provision.

Headteacher Lisa Davison said the outstanding rating was testament to her staff's 'hard work'.

Lead inspector Fiona McNally said: "From their different starting points, pupils make exceptional progress in reading, writing and mathematics.

"Disadvantaged pupils’ progress is outstanding and often stronger than that of their peers.

"On entry, the large majority of children can speak little or no English.

"Despite this, by the time they leave Key Stage One, pupils’ skill development is average.

"By the time they leave Key Stage Two, the standards they reach are consistently above average.

"This demonstrates outstanding progress.

"Teaching is outstanding. Teachers always check pupils’ understanding regularly and use this information to create activities which match pupils’ needs very closely.

"Activities are often highly challenging, although in a very small minority of lessons the highest levels of challenge are not seen.

"In books, teachers give pupils very useful feedback. This is the case even in younger years and all pupils respond to the feedback, thus making regular improvements and leading to very rapid progress in their learning.

"Pupils’ attitudes to learning are very positive.

"They love the activities they do because they are challenging and enjoyable.

"Teachers work very effectively to capture pupils’ interests and constantly adjust the provision where they see any early signs of underachievement."

When the school was last inspected in July 2012 it was rated as 'good'.

Mrs Davison said: "This really reflects all of the hard work that has gone into making this school the best it can be.

"There are challenges here that we work hard to overcome and I'm glad that Ofsted has recognised that.

"The children are absolutely delightful and they make us very proud every day.

"We have a very good relationship with the parents who really value education.

"They are very positive and they support the school and their child's learning.

We really try to develop the whole child, not just their academic progress."