A NURTURE group at a Trowbridge school which helps pupils relax has been highly commended in an Ofsted report and will be used as an example of good practice for other schools.

Staff and pupils at Staverton School are celebrating after a glowing Ofsted report this week following a week-long inspection in October.

The newly-established nurture group was highly commended in the report and details of how it was set up will go on the Ofsted website in six weeks.

Teacher Jill Vincent developed plans for the nurture group.

She said: "The idea came originally from when children were awarded a special playtime for good behaviour. We discovered that their learning improved so we set up the nurture group idea to give children a chance to relax and chat through things if they wanted to.

"This is not formal counselling, and during sessions the children can contribute to school projects like the garden, or art work, but it relaxes them and helps their work."

The school has nearly doubled in size over the past five years and now has 204 pupils aged four to 11.

Headteacher Liz Bannister said: "It was a new style of inspection this term so we had nothing to compare it to and could not ask other schools for pointers to prepare for it.

"The new inspection is less based on paperwork and the inspectors spent a lot of time talking to pupils and parents to get a really good feel for the school.

"Our last inspection was in 1998 and the school was much smaller then and I had only just taken over.

"Then we did not score well for maths and I am pleased to say we have improved on all of the areas from the last inspection."

The report highlighted the quality of the teaching and leadership and management skills of the headteacher and staff but outlined some areas for improvement.

Parents are to be given more information about their children's progress and maths skills need to be integrated in other subjects like history and science before the next inspection.

Mrs Bannister said: "The timing of this report could not have been better with Christmas around the corner it is great for the staff and pupils to know their hard work has paid off."

There are plans to extend the nurture group by designing a 'chill-out' room at the school.

Mrs Vincent said: "We are still in the development stages of the nurture group but I have started writing letters to companies who might be able to help us fund a 'chill-out' room in the future."