A RIBBLE Valley secondary school has received a ratings boost after being told to improve three years ago.

St Cecilia's RC High School in Longridge has been upgraded by Ofsted from 'requires improvement' to 'good' following an inspection earlier this month.

It was praised across the board by the education watchdog, including its leadership and teaching.

Lead inspector Mary Myatt said: "Standards and achievement at St Cecilia’s have improved in the last two years, particularly in English and mathematics.

"Pupils also achieve well in history and sports studies.

"The progress made by disadvantaged pupils is good and is similar to other pupils in the school. Pupils benefit from good or better teaching in most lessons.

"Pupils behave well around the school and are keen to do well.

"The school provides many opportunities for spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and pupils engage enthusiastically in these.

"The new headteacher has provided renewed focus and energy to build on the improvements made in the last two years.

"Senior leaders provide training for staff that is highly effective in developing the quality of their teaching."

The inspector also said teachers were sharing good practice 'both within the school and collaborating with colleagues from other schools'.

She added however that the Chapel Hill school could not be rated as 'outstanding' because pupils had not made enough progress in science, design technology, geography, information technology and modern languages.

The inspector also said that teaching in some lessons 'does not challenge pupils' to encourage them to do their best and that some pupils do not follow up on their teachers' suggestions for improvement.

The report comes just two months after neighbouring Longridge High School was downgraded from 'good' to 'requires improvement'.

Headteacher Ivan Catlow, who joined the school in April 2015, said: "Most of the work was done before I joined, by the governors, staff, parents and students.

"I was just in a position to put all of that hard work together ahead of the inspection.

"What this has done is confirmed my belief that this is a good school and there was always that sense among the teachers here.

"There is a sense of relief but there is more of a sense of affirmation."

The school had been previously rated as 'requires improvement' following an inspection in 2013.