STAFF and students at Ringwood Infant School are celebrating after it received a rating of Outstanding in its latest church inspection.

A Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools (SIAMS) report praised the School Lane school and said "all children are highly valued" and have "excellent standards of personal development, academic achievement and well-being."

The school is a larger than average infant school with 270 pupils. It is popular and attracts half of its pupils from outside the catchment area.

Inspectors said: "Ringwood Infant School is an outstanding church school because its core Christian values of love, courage and respect are explicit, deeply embedded and well-understood by the whole school community.

"Each child is viewed as unique and special. This has resulted in children who are happy, confident and excited within school."

The report said behaviour is of "of the highest standard" and children told inspectors that collective worship times makes them feel nice and calm inside.

The report praised the school's links with a primary school in Uganda and said staff and governors are ambitious in their search for ways to further improve.

They added: "Strong, capable leadership ensures the progress of children consistently reaches national levels and above."

It suggested that children should be allowed to be more involved in the leadership, planning and evaluation of worship."

Head teacher Hilary Silk said: "We're delighted with the report and feedback from the church. The whole team at Ringwood, governors and staff, work hard to ensure our Christian ethos translates into a loving and safe environment where every child thrives, receives an excellent education and makes the most of every opportunity presented to them."