A NEW Forest school has been described as "very good" by inspectors, two years after it moved on to a new site.

Pupils at Our Lady and St Joseph RC Primary School in Lymington were found to have a very good quality of education.

The Ofsted inspection comes nearly two years after the 120-pupil school moved from its 150-year old building in the grounds of Our Lady and St Joseph Catholic Church in the High Street.

Now staff and pupils have settled into their new purpose-built premises in Ramley Road, Pennington.

Head teacher Irene Cradick, who took over the school in 1991, paid tribute to everyone involved in making Our Lady and St Joseph School a happy and successful school. "The strong staff team is ably supported by enthusiastic and involved governors and parents.

"We all work hard to ensure that everyone is involved and matters."

She also praised the smooth transition to a new school site and the help from other schools, businesses, churches and neighbours. "Moving to a new site placed tremendous demands on all of us and we thank everyone who worked so hard to maintain standards throughout this period."

Acting chairman of governors John Boocock congratulated the head teacher, staff and pupils. "We were delighted that the inspectors found Our Lady and St Joseph's School to be a very good school providing a very good quality of education, leadership and management, together with consistently good or better teaching and a stimulating curriculum."

STRENGTHS

It is a very good school.

Leadership and management are very good.

Pupils' achievement in all years is very good.

Pupils have good attitudes to work and behave very well.

Teaching is consistently good and very good in English and maths.

Lessons are well planned and provide stimulating activities to help learning.

The school is very outward-looking and has exceptional links with the community.

The governors are well informed.

WEAKNESSES

There is insufficient room for some arrangements and the outdoor accommodation for the Foundation Stage limits activities.

Information and communication technology is not yet exploited fully to help pupils reach even higher standards.

IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED

Ensure information and communication technology is used more effectively in all subjects.

Continue improvements to accommodation.

STANDARDS ACHIEVED

Achievement is very good.

In Years 1 and 2, pupils continue to do well and attain high standards in tests for seven-year-olds.

Results for tests for 11-year-olds show that pupils' achievements were very high and in the top five per cent nationally in maths and science, and well above average in English.

Pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is very good.

Pupils are very well behaved and have very positive attitudes to school.

Pupils' attendance and punctuality is good.

FACTFILE:

Our Lady and St Joseph Catholic Primary School, Ramley Road, Pennington, Lymington

Head teacher: Irene Cradick

Number of pupils: 120

Age range: from four to 11.