A HAMPSHIRE primary school has been praised as an “inspirational” place for children to learn and staff to work.

Following its latest Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist schools (SIAMS) inspection, Sparsholt Church of England Primary School was awarded the top grade of ‘excellent’.

Inspectors spent a day assessing how effective the faith school’s distinctive Christian vision is and how leadership is used to enable staff and its 126 children to flourish.

The school in Woodman Lane was commended for its Christian teaching, community links, leadership opportunities and pupils’ compassion.

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The report, published at the end of April, read: “This school is a truly inspiring place to learn and to work. All members of the school community live out the Christian vision with authenticity and kindness. The vision is embedded and effective.

“Inspirational collective worship is well planned and is deeply valued by the whole school community. Pupils confidently plan and lead collective worship on a weekly basis. This enables pupils to develop their leadership skills and their understanding of worship.

“Opportunities for pupils to develop as independent agents of change are excellent. Pupils are given a wide range of leadership roles which enables them to flourish.

“The Christian vision clearly impacts on the curriculum enabling all to learn and develop as well-rounded pupils. The exceptionally strong provision for religious education (RE) is at the heart of this.

“Pupils recognise their responsibility to help others in response to the needs of the community and the world. As a parent commented, the school empowers their children to play their part in the outside world. Parents also attribute good behaviour to the impact of school’s vision.”

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Headteacher Elizabeth Hanratty said: “This is a fantastic achievement for our whole school community. During the inspection, all of the children were wonderful representatives of our school and spoke so knowledgeably and proudly about what happens here each and every day.

“As well as it being very gratifying to have such wonderful things CANVAwritten about our school, it was also incredibly rewarding to see the response of so many members of our school community in wanting to speak in praise of all that we do.

“We are so grateful to our pupils, staff, families, governors and the wider community for their contributions to the process and their hard work and support every day to make our school the best it can be. We are extremely proud to have had our achievements recognised in this way and look forward to us continuing and building upon our fantastic work as a church school.”