OFSTED boss Chris Woodhead spent his last working day as chief schools inspector visiting Derry Hill Primary School.

Mr Woodhead, who resigned earlier this month, had high praise for the school after accepting an invitation to see improvements made in the wake of a poor Ofsted report in February.

Headteacher John Bellamy, who believes some of the comments in the report were unnecessarily harsh, wanted to show off the improvements staff have made at the school since February.

"We thought because we feel we have made significant progress he would like to come and have a look," he said.

The school governors wrote to Mr Woodhead some months ago, expecting him to send a representative in his place and were surprised to learn he would be visiting them.

They were even more surprised to learn, following his resignation, that he was still due to visit, and on his last working day as head of Ofsted.

"We weren't expecting him to come himself and then of course he resigned, and we thought he would be too busy," said Mr Bellamy.

Mr Woodhead was given a tour of the primary school by 11-year-olds Joseph Carter and Olivia Hare, both members of the school council.

Mr Bellamy told him how pupils have recently scored much higher than average results in their national SATs tests.

More than 90 per cent of the children at the school have achieved at least level four in English, maths and science.

Mr Woodhead said: "I have come to see all the hard work and improvement that has been going on here and the news of the SATs results is excellent.

"Congratulations must go to the staff and children for all they have done."

He said he had enjoyed his tour of the school, which has just over 200 pupils.

"This seems like an excellent little school. The children all seem very vibrant and well informed," he added.

"Having a look around at what is going on in these classrooms I can see the school has a very positive future."

Mr Bellamy said the main improvements at the school, which was categorised as having serious weaknesses in several areas, had been made in literacy and information technology learning.

"The main purpose of inviting Mr Woodhead was to show off all we have achieved here in the last few months," he said.