A SCHOOL has been praised for its “clear and ambitious” vision during its latest Ofsted inspection.

Honywood Community Science School, in Westfield Drive, Coggeshall, was rated as good by officers during a inspection on March 28 and 29.

Leadership was said to be one of the school’s strongest qualities and the standard of teaching also received praise.

The report states: “The headteacher has a clear and ambitious vision that is widely shared across the school community.

“This vision is grounded in the expectation that pupils will be empowered to become resilient, independent learners, developing the skills, knowledge and understanding needed to make good progress as they move on through each stage of their education.”

Inspectors said pupils are to be proud to be a part of the school, and the school community is described as “welcoming and inclusive”.

The behaviour of pupils was also praised.

However inspectors stated that outcomes for pupils required improvement, pointing to problems with the school’s early examination process and a lack of progress in English, maths and science by the end of Key Stage 4.

However pupils still achieved above average results in their GCSEs.

The report adds: “More focused monitoring of pupils’ progress and improving teaching and learning are ensuring that the differences between the progress of the small number of disadvantaged pupils in the school and other non-disadvantaged pupils nationally are diminishing.”

Headteacher Simon Mason said: “I am immensely proud of our learners, our staff, our families and our governors, all of whom have embraced the learning culture the inspection team so rightly identified as being such a strength of our school.

“Together we have created a very special place to learn.”

Honywood was previously rated “good” by Ofsted inspectors in June 2013.