The best school in the county... ever!

Edisford County Primary School, which teaches 250 children, was labelled 'outstanding' in every category from teaching standards to leadership and management.

Unusually, the school was also given no specific targets for improvement and was branded 'too modest' by inspectors.

The report, which follows a visit by inspectors from the Office for Standards in Education, concluded the school had 'no key issues' where it could improve.

The report, which has been sent to the school but not yet published by Ofsted, read: "The school is altogether too modest when judging itself, although this reflects a view the staff share that everything can be improved.

"It really is outstanding in most respects."

It added the headteacher provides 'exemplary leadership', pupils displayed 'outstanding social skills' and 'children love coming to school'.

The school achieved Grade 1 status, with 1 being outstanding down to 4, which is inadequate, in all categories.

Head Rob Pye, 44, who has run the school since 2001, said: "Perhaps we won't be too modest anymore.

"The inspector told us only one or two schools would get a report like this in the country and the Local Education Authority said they'd never seen a better report for a Lancashire school.

"I think we impressed the inspectors because we do some things here that nowhere else does.

"For instance, instead of literacy and numeracy hours -- where pupils might do some shared reading and write a story with the teacher on the blackboard -- we have our own initiative called Rockface.

"This sees children work at their own pace towards a series of goals, or mountains as we call them, tailored to their own ability."

Lancashire County Council education boss Coun Alan Whittaker said: "We are delighted with this news and congratulate staff, pupils and parents."

A spokesman for Ofsted said that reports which identify no areas for improvement were 'pretty rare'.