STAFF and pupils of a tiny Wimborne school are celebrating after being named one of the best in the country for the teaching of phonics.

St James’ CE First School in Gaunt’s Common was awarded an ‘outstanding’ mark by Ofsted inspectors after a visit last year.

But there was more good news to come after teachers were told at the beginning of this year that the school is in the top five per cent of schools nationally for youngsters learning phonics.

The subject is a method for teaching writing and reading by developing learners’ phonemic awareness – the ability to hear, identify and manipulate phonemes – in order to teach the correspondence between these sounds and the spelling patterns that represent them.

Headteacher Jacqui Booth said: “This is an incredible achievement for a small school that is universally loved by those who attend but sometimes overlooked by families who don’t realise that it is just a few minutes’ drive from Wimborne. “And if recent results are anything to go by, it seems those few minutes are well worth making time for.”

She said staff were already aware that children had performed exceptionally well in the annual phonics screening, but added that no one had realised just how well they had done until a letter arrived from MP Nick Gibb.

Mr Gibb, Minister of State at the Department for Education, had written to say that the results are in the top five per cent across the UK.

Ms Booth said: “It took a little while to realise just how significant this achievement is. “To think that a little school like ours can compete with the biggest and most highly funded schools in the country is very exciting.”

For more information about the school and activities there visit the website www.gauntscommon.dorset. sch.uk