BRANKSOME Heath Junior is a school which celebrates its pupils' successes - but the problem is it's running out of merit awards!

"We've introduced gold and platinum levels, and the rainbow award, and now we're thinking about a star system," head of school Andrew Brown tells me. "The children are doing so well."

These colourful ribbons are given to children for passing milestones in the number of house merits they have collected for good work and behaviour. They are worn with pride down the sleeves of their school jumpers - and some pupils look like they could do with longer arms!

These new additions to the merit scheme are among many positive changes seen at Livingstone Road school over the past two years. Back in September 2014 it was joined with Sylvan Infant School, situated opposite, forming the Livingstone Road Primary Federation, under management of executive head Sarah Lee. Mr Brown was brought in as head of the junior school. Around 80 per cent of the current teachers have joined during the last two years.

He said: "We have got some really good teachers in this school, very creative and very dynamic. They want to do the best for all the children within their care."

A new creative curriculum, whereby children learn through topics instead of narrowly defined subject areas, is now in place. A quick tour of the building, passing by an igloo, a wall of Egyptian masks, and through a prehistoric cave, gives you a sense of the creativity brought into lessons.

"That creative curriculum is well embedded now and we have some extremely lively topics," added Mr Brown.

But that creativity doesn't detract from the focus on improving maths and English. "We want those core skills set before they leave this school," he added.

A former middle school, Branksome Heath is big and generously accommodates its 320 pupils, who currently have the benefit of class sizes of around 25.

Facilities include a large field, playground, trim trail, garden, huge ICT suite and food technology room. There are also a range of clubs on offer, from gardening to computing to sports - something of a specialism at Branksome Junior.

The children have the advantage of specialist teachers with coaching qualifications. They were Dorset Tag Rugby Champions last year.

The wealth of resources is something Mr Brown would like to share. "We are keen to get parents into our school and using the resources such as the library, the food tech room, the computer suite," he said. "One of our parents runs a computer coding club for the children which we would like to extend to parents further down the line."

Good communication with parents and children is also valued. Feedback surveys have already seen the introduction of more activity equipment at play time, including skipping ropes and circus skills kits

"We want to get the feedback, listen to it and do something about it," adds Mr Brown.

Leadership at the school was singled out for praise in the most recent Ofsted inspection - and Mr Brown believes that they are heading in the right direction across the board, including with a "very clear behaviour policy which all the children have bought in to," he added. "We have high expectations for all. The other thing which improves behaviour is good teaching. If they have a teacher in front of them who is creative and exciting and pulls them into their learning then their behaviour improves as a result - and it has done. You walk into a classroom and everybody there wants to learn,"

"Now we have a really strong team in place the only way is up," he added.