A school has retained its ‘good’ Ofsted rating following one of the last inspections before they were suspended due to coronavirus.

Horringer Court School in Bury St Edmunds received a highly positive report by inspectors following the inspection on March 5 and 6.

It says leaders are ambitious for pupils and expect them to achieve well across all subjects, learning is rarely affected by poor behaviour and provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is strong.

MORE: ‘We don’t want kids to be traumatised’ - schools and nurseries on preparing for more children in JuneHeadteacher Steve Palmer said the report was “extremely positive and reflects the excellent learning that takes place here”.

He said: “It’s an extremely fair report. It backs up what we thought about the school before the inspection.”

The report said: “Pupils enjoy coming to this school. They acknowledge its strong community feel.

“Year 5 pupils enjoy having a Year 8 buddy to help them to settle in.

“Pupils and parents like the specialist teachers and facilities, and the range of subjects on offer. Pupils appreciate that these give them more opportunities in the future.

“Staff are proud to work at this school. They have high expectations of what pupils can achieve. Pupils respond by working hard and behaving well.”

Inspectors picked out a few areas the school could improve, including planning of teaching in some subjects and ensuring pupils who have fallen behind with reading in key stage 2 catch up quicker.

The report added: “Pupils do not get enough information about future careers. This means that they do not have sufficient guidance to help them make choices later in life. Leaders should make sure pupils are provided with an effective careers education.”

Mr Palmer acknowledged that under the new Ofsted inspection framework that came in last year it was more difficult to achieve a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ rating.

He said the new framework was a “positive step” as it was less focused on data and more about children learning a broad and balanced curriculum.

Horringer Court School, which takes pupils from ages nine to 13, had a section 8 inspection, which are for ‘good’ schools and are carried out normally once every four years.