A WEST DORSET primary school is celebrating its achievement after receiving a positive Ofsted report.

Thorner’s Church of England School in Litton Cheney was awarded a ‘good’ rating across all five sections – leadership and management, behaviour and safety of pupils, quality of teaching, achievement of pupils and early years provision.

Its most recent inspection took place last month.

In the report, headteacher, Mrs Jyotsna Chaffey, was highlighted as ‘relentless’ and ‘passionate’ in her drive for improvement and for all pupils to achieve well.

Pupils were described as ‘pleasant, very polite and well mannered’ and staff were said to be ‘ambitious’ for pupils to excel.

Mrs Chaffey said: “It’s brilliant news. We are all really pleased.

“Everyone works really well as a team and the parents are very supportive of us and have given us a positive response.

“All the staff have worked hard for years to get where we are. It has been a really good journey.

“The children are just wonderful and the response I got from the inspector about them was really positive.”

All the staff and the vast majority of parents who responded to a questionnaire on Parent View, and those spoken to by the inspector, said they are ‘very satisfied’ with the school’s work.

One parent said: “Thorner’s is a wonderful, gentle and inclusive school where the kids clearly love to learn.”

The report highlighted the school’s curriculum, saying it ensures that ‘pupils make rapid progress in developing the essential skills of reading, writing and mathematics so that they are well prepared for the next stage in their education’ and it ‘provides ample opportunities for pupils to excel in music and performing arts’.

The report also praised the wealth of after-school clubs, including archery, tennis, sailing and a wide range of competitive sports.

The promotion of British values, such as democracy, care for others and equality of opportunity was also highlighted as a ‘very positive feature’ of the school, which has 72 pupils.

Thorner’s is one of the oldest surviving village schools in Dorset, dating back to 1690.

Mrs Chaffey took over as head in 2011.

In the school’s previous inspection in January 2013, it was also rated as good.

The most recent report said: “It is not yet an outstanding school because:

“Progress in writing in Key Stage 1 is less rapid because harder tasks are not always set to challenge the most able pupils; on a few occasions, marking does not clearly tell pupils how they can improve their work and so not all pupils have the benefit of learning from their mistakes; and children in the early years do not have a wide enough range of opportunities to develop their creative, expressive arts and design skills.”

The school’s early years provision was rated as being outstanding.