STAFF at a South Ham school are celebrating after the facility maintained its ‘good’ rating following its latest visit from Ofsted.

Limington House School, in St Andrew’s Road, is a special school for ages 2-19 and was visited by Ofsted at the end of last year.

Inspectors praised a range of aspects of the school, including staff, parents and pupils, as well as its leadership and governors and its ‘effective’ safeguarding arrangements.

The school was previously graded ‘good’ by inspectors after a visit in October 2012. That rating was preserved after a follow-up ‘short’ inspection three years later and has again been maintained after the latest visit.

The most recent report, published on January 29, read: “Pupils are very happy and well cared for in this kind and inclusive school… Most parents and carers are very positive about how effectively the school meets the individual needs of their child.

“As they move through school, pupils understand the importance of becoming as independent as possible and aim to join the further education group… These experiences help pupils and their families to prepare for their next steps into adulthood.”

Staff were also said to use effective methods to help pupils understand and remember concepts and were “proud to work at their school”, the report noted.

They also worked well in teams to “ensure plans for learning identify what pupils should learn and when”, while leaders were also said to have a “clear understanding” of what pupils should learn and where the school needed to improve.

Inspectors visited the school on December 4 and 5, last year.

During their visit they held meetings with teachers and governors, consulted responses from staff and parent surveys and met with pupils to find out their views.

The report did note that a change in middle management currently being undertaken at the school needs “careful consideration to ensure that the training and development of staff continue” and that “assessment within lessons was not always used effectively”.

But the final outcome was that “Limington House School continues to be a good school.”

Headteacher Justin Innes said: “We are pleased that Ofsted have graded Limington House as a good school following our recent inspection. We are in an exciting position to build on our strengths and make Limington House an outstanding school.”

The Chair of Governors, Roy Cleaver added: “We are enormously proud of the OFSTED result, which is a tribute to all the hard work of the staff over many years. This result is particularly good, because the inspection was conducted under the new framework, which is much rigorous than before.”