PUPILS from St Mary's RC Primary School have been praised by inspectors for their good behaviour in the classroom.

They rated the Clayton-le-Moors school "good'' overall and thanked teachers for delivering interesting and fast-paced lessons,

But, school staff were told to place more emphasis on teaching youngsters about worldwide cultures to prepare them for life in a diverse society.

Ofsted's team published their report on the school last week after visiting the 106-pupil school in June

Their report said: "Pupils have very high standards of behaviour and very positive attitudes."

The inspectors praised headteacher Tony Gallagher for his good leadership skills which focused on high achievement.

The report adds: "Standards are above average and pupils achieve well throughout the school.

"Pupils have very good attitudes to learning, very good behaviour and their relationships are good."

The findings came as a new nationwide study revealed 40 per cent of teachers have to deal with bad behaviour on an hourly basis and 80 per cent said lessons were disrupted daily.

The report also said: "Throughout the school, lessons are interesting, driven at a fast pace and enable pupils to make good progress.

"Standards in Year 6 are above average in English, mathematics and science, as shown by results of the national tests."

It added: "The school now needs to include planning for multi-cultural education across the curriculum so that pupils are better prepared for life in a diverse society."

St Mary's chairman of governors Elaine Maguire said: "Thanks and praise must go to our pupils for their excellent behaviour and the way they embraced the whole inspection process.

"They were a credit to themselves and all involved with them."

Mr Gallagher said: "Although we are a small school we have the capacity to increase our number of pupils.

"I hope this report will attract new families to St Mary's."

The school is due to hold an open day for potential new pupils and their parents on Wednesday.

Anyone interested can call 231277.