A WEST Devon school has won a rare accolade from education inspectors.

The inspectors from Ofsted — the office for standards in education — said every lesson they saw at Milton Abbot School was satisfactory or better.

A spokesman from Devon LEA said: 'It is very unusual for a school to get a 100 per cent satisfactory rating for its lessons.'

The vast majority of lessons — 83 per cent — were judged good or very good. Other aspects of the school's work were equally praised.

'Milton Abbot is a good school with very many good features and few weaknesses,' the inspectors concluded.

Three inspectors spent two days at the school in February. Their report has just been published. Chief inspector Graham Sims said the school was growing in popularity, with a 20 per cent increase in the roll, bringing it to 91.

He said the children's attitudes were good and they made good progress through the school, achieving standards well above average by the age of 11.

Provision for special education needs was said to be very good.

Information and Communication Technology — ICT — was an area Ofsted thought improvements could be made, so too concentration on writing skills in subjects other than English. Parents picked out other areas they would like to see improved.

Headteacher Peter Jones said: 'I am very pleased with Ofsted's main findings. I'm particularly pleased that Ofsted noticed our high standards of achievement, the very good pupil behaviour, attitudes and relationships and the improvements in teaching standards. Few schools achieve satisfactory or better in all lessons observed.'

Mr Jones said ICT was a common area picked up by Ofsted.

'We are busy investing in new computers. We are also upgrading our staff training skills.'

Chair of governors Norman Hurn said: 'I am delighted that the hard work of the headteacher and his team has been acknowledged.'

He said one of the school's strengths was that everyone involved was constantly trying to improve the already high standards.