A BLACKBURN school that saw half of its governing body resign has had its Ofsted rating upgraded and leadership praised.

St Paul’s RC Primary School in Feniscowles was inspected by the education watchdog in October and has been upped from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘good’.

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Six governors have stepped down since the start of the academic year following a disagreement with the headteacher Catherine Monaghan.

In the report, which was published on Tuesday, Ofsted rated the personal development, behaviour and welfare of students as ‘outstanding’ while also praising the school’s leadership, teaching, early years provision and outcomes for pupils.

Lead inspector Gillian Burrow said: “The headteacher, deputy and assistant headteacher are a strong senior leadership team with a shared ambition to provide the very best for every pupil.

“Leaders and governors have addressed successfully the weaknesses identified at the previous inspection. They have established an enthusiastic staff team, committed to driving forward improvement at a good rate. The school is an extremely happy community where pupils feel very safe and are well cared for. Pupils’ personal development and welfare at the school is outstanding. Behaviour is exemplary.

The inspector added that the school was not yet ‘outstanding’ as the quality of teaching does not result in outstanding achievement overall and good and outstanding progress is not made across the school.

Mrs Monaghan said: “We are now in receipt of the report and are very pleased that the school has been graded as good. Whilst this grading by Ofsted shows the progress the school is making as a community, we want even more.

“This Ofsted inspection is giving us the platform to continue to move towards outstanding.”

The report states that ‘the governing body is currently in a stage of transition’ and that Salford Diocese is supporting the school to manage the process.