Ely’s Highfield Special School has been rated as good with outstanding features by Government inspectors.

The Downham Road school was praised across the board by Ofsted for its quality of teaching, pupil safety and the leadership of head teacher, Simon Bainbridge.

Ofsted inspector, Margaret Goodchild said: “The head teacher provides outstanding leadership and is driven in his quest for excellence. He has brought about a lot of positive change since the previous inspection and the school is strongly placed to improve further.

“The head teacher’s high expectations have created a culture where teaching can flourish and where pupils are expected to behave well.”

Mrs Goodchild also praised the quality of teaching, saying that staff had high expectations of pupils and had a thorough understanding of their needs.

She added: “Teachers nearly always use information about pupils’ needs to plan lessons that provide the right level of challenge and they always explain to them what they are expected to learn.

“Teachers and teaching assistants are readily available to help pupils who need it, and the staff provide a great deal of encouragement and clear feedback about how well pupils have done.”

In order to become an outstanding school, inspectors said staff needed to raise the achievement of sixth form students and improve the teaching of pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties.