PUPILS and staff at a Penarth primary school are celebrating after receiving a good review in their first Estyn report in eight years.

Fairfield Primary School received the second to top rating in the report, receiving a judgement of good in all inspection areas - which are: Standards, wellbeing and attitudes to learning, teaching and learning experiences, care, support and guidance and leadership and management.

The school - which has around 321 pupils on roll between the ages of three and 11 as well as nine pupils at the newly-opened nursery - was visited by inspectors in February of this year. The last time the primary was last inspected was in November 2010.

The report states that Fairfield ensures pupils feel “safe and valued” and the school itself is a “strong and cohesive community”.

Pupils are taught in 11 classes, several of which are for pupils from different year groups.

The formation of classes and the school’s values-based curriculum was praised for “being effective in ensuring that nearly all pupils develop positive attitudes” as well as “behave well and show respect for other members of the school community.”

Standards in the school are said to be good as “pupils make good progress in developing their speaking and listening skills”.

And inspectors say that by Year 2, “most pupils read with increasing fluency, using punctuation correctly to add emphasis and expression.”

The head teacher and senior staff were also praised in the report for communicating “the vision of the school well”, “delivering the school’s values” and “supporting its caring ethos”.

Head teacher Sian Lewis, who has been at Fairfield Primary School since September 2008, said she was delighted with the results.

“All of Fairfield’s community is proud that Estyn identified the good work taking place at Fairfield School,” she said.

“The strong elements of our provision have been recognised as a result of the hard work and commitment of staff, governors, pupils and parents.

“We look forward to working on the areas identified to further improve the provision at Fairfield.”