A south Norfolk school has been praised for the 'significant improvements' it has made to the academic and personal progress of its pupils.

Attleborough Junior School, which was subject to special measures in 2008, was judged overall as 'satisfactory' by Ofsted inspectors, but with the capacity to sustain a 'good' level of improvement.

A report, following an inspection in July, said: 'The school is building a secure foundation for future development and rigorous systems of monitoring teaching and tracking pupil progress are showing the signs of success.'

Pupils were found to make 'satisfactory' progress with the majority attaining 'broadly average' standards by the time they leave the 'ambitious' school.

Inspectors described the teaching as 'good' and the school's leadership as 'effective'.

The report said there were 'clear signs' of improvements in all year groups, with Year 6 provisional results showing pupils are on track to reach average and higher levels in English and maths.

However the report highlighted that pupils' confidence in writing and applying their skills in maths calculation have 'not been consistently developed' and making it harder to hit the top grades. Pupils' targets were also deemed not to be challenging enough and more use needs to be made of ICT equipment.

But praise was heaped on pupils' 'excellent understanding' of how to adopt healthy lifestyles and their 'outstanding contribution' to the wider community with events such as litter picking, planting flowers and visiting local residential homes.

Headteacher Chris Read said: 'We have come a long way in the last three years and we are tremendously grateful for the support of parents, pupils and the local community.

'We are providing good teaching and extra curricular activities for our pupils in a caring and supportive atmosphere and it is fantastic that Ofsted has recognised that our pupils enjoy coming to school and very many aspects of the school are good, with some outstanding.'