A PENDLE school is celebrating after receiving its ‘best ever’ Ofsted report.

Whitefield Infant School and Nursery Unit was rated as ‘outstanding’ in every category by inspectors after they visited last month.

The result marked the continued improvement of the Nelson school, which was described as ‘good’ after its last inspection in January 2006.

All 174 pupils at the Norfolk Street school are from minority ethnic backgrounds, aged between three and seven and at an early stage of acquiring English.

Staff were praised by inspectors for being ‘enthusiastic’ and displaying ‘exceptional’ teamwork and ‘very high’ morale.

According to inspectors children in the nursery ‘make speedy gains in all areas of learning’ and as a result they are ‘happy, well settled and very secure.’ And elsewhere ‘pupils make impressive gains because they are taught extremely well.’ As part of the glowing report, inspectors also praised the school for securing accreditation as a Healthy School and the Activemark.

Headteacher Ethna Cummings, who has been in the position for 25 years, said: “We are delighted with the judgements of the Ofsted inspectors.

“The report is an endorsement of the excellent teamwork collaboration, commitment and enthusiasm of staff, governors, parents and children all working and ‘learning together’ and sharing the same vision.

“It acknowledges the outstanding education we provide for our children through a highly stimulating learning environment, a strong focus on learning beyond the classroom, a broad rich curriculum underpinned by creativity, outstanding teaching - all wrapped up in an ethos and culture which nurtures maximum care and respect for everyone and where every child succeeds and makes outstanding progress.”

The report says that due to the track record of improvements made ‘the school has excellent capacity to improve further.’