A GLOWING Ofsted report has topped a high school's year in which it played host to the Prime Minister and two secretaries of state on the same day.

A team of 14 inspectors from the Office for Standards in Education visited Our Lady and St John RC High School in North Road, Blackburn, in November and found its strengths greatly outweighed any weaknesses.

The school, which welcomed Tony Blair, Home Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw and Education Secretary David Blunkett earlier this year, is part of the Blackburn with Darwen Education Action Zone.

In the report, inspectors praised the leadership of the school and highlighted the work of the governors for fulfilling their responsibilities in every respect.

They found the school was providing a high quality of education through good teaching and noted that pupils in year seven arrived with below average attainment and ended in year 11 where GCSE results were above average and improving faster than the national trend.

Inspectors highlighted the ethos and Catholic character, effective discipline, and the programme of extra-curricular activities described as a credit to the teachers involved. Pupils were well looked after, of good behaviour overall and responded well to the high quality of education with good attendance and attitudes to work.

The report highlights the attainment of pupils in year seven as a particular weakness with literacy the biggest concern, and inspectors also found some lower attaining pupils to have behavioural difficulties.

But the school was found to have made good improvement since their last inspection in April 1995 when it was already described as very good.

Headteacher Michael Humphreys said: "The teachers always expect the highest standards of behaviour, effort and academic excellence and their unstinting commitment over the last four years is reflected in this glowing report."

Chairman of governors Canon Jude Harrison added: "This report makes public what every parent at the school knows: the teachers show an outstanding commitment to all their pupils."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.