There were smiles all round at an Otley school as it celebrated achieving an improved Ofsted rating.

Staff and pupils at Ashfield Primary are jubilant after inspectors upgraded the school’s rating from satisfactory to good.

The new Ofsted report hails the school’s academic achievements, noting it has made “many significant improvements over the last two years” under the leadership of headteacher Sybil Parker.

It also praises the school’s culture, noting that: “Pupils thoroughly enjoy coming to school and this is shown in their good behaviour and attitudes. They have a good all-round education with a balance of academic, personal and creative work.”

A delighted Mrs Parker said: “We’re really pleased, this is a lovely boost to everyone and we have a school full of teachers who are walking about with smiles on their faces.

“This has been down to a real team effort from fantastic staff and children, who have worked so hard, and very supportive governors and parents.

“The improvements have included rigorous monitoring to ensure every child is treated as an individual and receives extra support, whatever level they are at, when needed.

“This is all about making sure the children receive the best education they can and are as best prepared as they can be by the time they go to secondary school – that’s our job.

“I think my favourite comment from the whole report is that the children come to school with smiles on their faces.”

School governor Councillor Ryk Downes (Lib Dem, Otley & Yeadon) said: “This is excellent news and well-deserved. A lot of hard work has been put in to ensure Ashfield is a very, very good school.

“It does a great job and has been doing so for years – this report proves it. I actually thought we should have got the ‘good’ rating at the last inspection, when it was very close but the inspectors were quite harsh about a few things.”

Among the improve-ments highlighted by the inspectors was in the proportion of pupils making good progress in English and maths, which had “increased significantly”.