SEVEN East Lancashire schools have been singled out for praise by the education watchdog after its inspection of almost 4,000 schools last year.

Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools David Bell, sent out a pat on the back to more than 400 schools nationally for their efforts in his annual report for 2003.

Ofsted inspected 3,041 primary schools, 122 nurseries and 551 secondaries, 185 special schools and 75 pupil referral units in 2002/3.

And four schools in Rossendale and one each in Burnley, Nelson and Darwen, were celebrating after being told they were top of the class.

Schools on the list stand out as having done particularly well across the board or has having achieved highly against the odds.

In Rossendale, St James-the-Less RC primary, Rawtenstall, St Mary's Rawtenstall CofE primary, Alder Grange Community and Technology College and Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar were all praised, as well as Woodfield Nursery School, Brierfield, Rosegrove Infant School, Burnley and Lower Darwen Primary School.

County Coun Alan Whittaker, executive member for education, said: "I am very very pleased those schools have been highlighted for their good practice and they are typical of many throughout the county council.

"Every child matters and that is why we invest so much in our education service.

"Everybody in the schools, down to the pupils and up to the governors, should be very proud."

Headteacher Alan Mooney at St James-the-Less, said: "We are absolutely delighted after receiving consistently impressive results in national tests.

"All the staff, governors and pupils welcome this accolade in recognition of the tremendous hard work and team effort throughout the school."

Susan Morton, headteacher at Lower Darwen Primary School, in Milking Lane, which has 239 pupils, said: "We were delighted with our excellent Ofsted report and this is just the icing on the cake. It's all down to teamwork -- doing our best and sticking at it.

"As it said in our report, myself, my staff and our governors all work well together to improve the school and maintain standards and I'm pleased that we've won recognition for that."

Peter Morgan, director of education and lifelonglearning at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "The Ofsted inspectors looked at the quality of teaching and learning, the behaviour and attitudes of pupils, their achievements and personal development and the leadership and management of the school.

"That's an outstanding result from an outstanding school and I'm delighted that they have been singled out for praise from Mr Bell," he said.