EXCEPTIONALLY good teaching and the well-behaved, hard-working pupils at an Accrington high school have been praised by a team of inspectors.

Head teacher AlasdairCoates at St Christopher's said the results of their recent OFSTED report had given the Church of England school a "tremendous morale boost."

The report showed many GCSE results well above national averages, particularly in History, English Literature, French, German, PE, Design and Technology and Keyboarding.

Pupils' achievement and progress were said to be good and sometimes very good.

Teachers were commended for their thorough subject knowledge and high expectations of pupils.

Attendance was said to be excellent with pupils working well with each other, seldom behaving badly and the school had no major bullying problem. Inspectors also said the school had a caring, thoughtful ethos, provided very good value for money and enjoyed strong parental support.

But the team drew attention to the failings of the school building saying it had too few laboratories, cramped rooms for technology and too small a library.

They also recommended more use of information technology in lessons across the curriculum.

Chairman of the governors Rev Paul Smith said: "This is a wonderful report which acknowledges the great work of staff and pupils."

"The school is providing a high quality education and continually sets high targets for everyone to aspire to."

Mr Coates said he wanted to thank everyone associated with the school and added: "The report has given us a tremendous morale boost."

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