Headteacher Gordon Trafford said he feels immensely proud of his 1,500 staff and students who have helped achieve The John Bentley School’s best ever Ofsted.

The school, in White Horse Way, was visited by an inspection team last week and was rated good with nine outstanding features.

The school gained particular praise for its contribution to the local community and its engagement with parents and carers.

Mr Trafford, who has been at the school for the past 11 years, including five years as headteacher, described the results as a big achievement for the whole town.

“I am personally very proud, but I am very proud on behalf of the 1,500 people at the school,” he said.

“It is important for Calne to have a good school.

“We are just delighted with the report because it shows we are providing first class education for the young people of Calne and these outcomes are achieved by both excellence in school and by working in Calne, with Calne, for Calne.

“It’s a brilliant achievement to be judged outstanding in our contribution to the community.

“It’s very important to us because we are working with a range of community groups to ensure all the children in Calne get the best possible start in life.”

Officers said one of the areas the school needed to improve on was its feedback to students.

But Mr Trafford said one of the stand-out features of the report was that 100 per cent of children at the school said that they felt cared for in a survey.

The same number of teachers said that they were proud to work at John Bentley. Mr Trafford added: “The students were a credit to the school during the inspection and I am very proud.

“I always used to say that I didn’t like schools which aimed for outstanding, but I honestly think that is a realistic target for us now.

“We have worked very hard over the last three years to ensure that Calne has a secondary school that it can be proud of.

“We are very clearly succeeding.”