PUPILS and staff at Wolverley High School are celebrating after the school was praised following a snap inspection.

It was carried out in November under Ofsted's new "short-notice" system, introduced in September, which gave the school just two days' notice.

The school received a "good" rating for almost all of its provision and was praised for raising standards.

The old inspection system had a seven-point scale and when introducing the new four-point scale, standards were raised. What used to be judged satisfactory is now inadequate, what was good is now satisfactory, what was very good or excellent is now good and outstanding remains outstanding.

Headteacher, Kevin O'Regan, said: "This report is a very important endorsement of the quality of education at Wolverley and I am especially pleased that there is such a clear confirmation that we have not allowed the Wyre Forest Review to distract us from the task of educating our current students. In fact, we have raised standards significantly."

The inspectors' report stated: "Wolverley High is a good school, providing good quality education with very good value for money. The whole of the team of staff and governors have demonstrated remarkable resilience and optimism in the local context of reorganistion.

"Thanks to the determination of its good quality leadership and professional dedication of all staff, students have enjoyed rising achievement, despite this protracted uncertainty."

The report said some weakness remained in the sixth form, evident most clearly in low standards among some year 12 learners in 2005 but it praised the wide range of A level courses and the flexibility of the school to cater for small numbers.

Inspectors said the school had demonstrated it had a very good capacity to improve.

Suggestions to improve learning further were increasing opportunities for independent learning in all years - in particular the sixth form - and to spread effective marking and feedback, evident in English and humanities, to all other subjects.

A letter to the students from lead inspector, Brian Cartwright, said: "Your school is giving you a good quality education in almost all it does.

"For most of you, that means you will do better than we would normally expect in most other schools by the time you complete your studies in year 11."