STAFF and governors at a Pendle school are celebrating after getting top marks from Ofsted inspectors.

The inspection team found Coates Lane Primary School, Barnoldswick, is a very effective school which achieves high standards through very good teaching.

The inspectors rated the lessons they saw as very good with no teaching classed as unsatisfactory.

Pupils have good attitudes and are motivated. They are keen to work hard and are given clear guidelines on how they are expected to behave.

Caroline Oldfield, chairman of governors, said: "I am delighted with this report. It gives us the proof of the hard work and commitment of everyone connected with our school which has raised standards so much. This excellent report added to our achievement of Charter Mark status is the reason why so many parents want to send their children to Coates Lane."

A team of inspectors visited the 175-pupil school over a week in February and found that as well as good teaching, it is well led and managed and has strong links with parents.

The team said the school needs to raise standards in information technology by providing more computers to bring it up to the high standard of other subjects. It also found the school needs to improve the teaching of skills during lessons and provide a unified system for recording and assessing pupils' achievements.

In the core subjects of English, maths and science Coates Lane is well above average compared to similar schools across the country.

Parents gave a long list of things that please them about the school with one complaint. Some felt children were not given the right amount of homework.

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