A PRIMARY school has joined the ranks of the country's best after Ofsted inspectors rated it "outstanding" in all areas.
St Paul's Primary School received the glowing report after the education watchdog spent two days observing lessons in mid-February.
The school, in St Paul's Road West, Dorking, was rated "good" at its last full inspection in 2007 and head teacher Sue Whittle said managing to leap up to "outstanding" was a major achievement in light of the Government's decision to change reporting standards.
She told the Advertiser: "We are very proud of this judgement, particularly as the new Ofsted criteria made it even more challenging. They have really upped the bar and made it much harder.
"It is a testament to the hard work of the whole team of staff and governors." Inspectors singled out the general standard of teaching, progress in maths and English, communication with parents and pupils' behaviour for particular praise.
The report read in part: "School leaders have very high expectations. They have secured significant improvements since the last inspection and they maintain very high standards."
The only area identified as requiring improvement was the standard of boys' writing.
Mrs Whittle, who has been head teacher at St Paul's for nine years, said: "That's something we are already addressing, so it's not a problem for us.
"I'm not surprised because it's a national issue: girls outperform boys in writing across the country."
Mrs Whittle put the school's high performance down to the "learning culture" which is present among teachers as well as pupils.
She said: "We do a lot of in-house training to support staff and I know all the staff are anxious to improve their practice. We have a culture here of doing so."
To read St Paul's Primary School's Ofsted report, as well as any report on other Mole Valley schools, visit www.ofsted.gov.uk
