Inspirational leaders and polite students have helped York's Millthorpe School achieve an overall "good" rating from Ofsted inspectors.

The school received its most recent inspection report last week, and has been praised for its improvements and standards.

Millthorpe is “improving at a very swift pace. Achievement is rising rapidly, but particularly so in English”, the report said, and the school has had a successful drive to improve teaching.

Students feel safe and secure and that the head teacher, Trevor Burton, has a “clarity of vision” which has motivated the senior team and staff. Governors provided high quality support and challenge, it added.

Mr Burton, who joined the school just after its last Ofsted inspection in 2011, said: "We are all delighted that inspectors have recognised that we have come a long way in such a short time,”

“School inspections have become a lot more rigorous and now scrutinise schools’ performance like never before. We achieved a ‘good’ rating last time, but it’s fair to say the bar has been raised considerably since then.

“We have stated in the past that we are ambitious and want to go from good to great. That ambition remains a commitment by the whole school community, which I am proud and feel privileged to lead.”

Last year’s GCSE results were the best the school has achieved, with 70 per cent of students recording five A*-C grades including English and maths. Inspectors said that the school’s tracking of students’ progress was “simple for all to understand, yet highly effective” and also “sophisticated in analysing students’ potential and identifying underachievement early.”

Inspectors were also impressed that many parents who responded to the online Parent View survey said they supported the school and would recommend it to others.

Some 45 lessons were observed over the two day inspection and teachers were praised for going out of their way to make learning interesting.

Bob Sydes, chair of governors, was also pleased with the inspectors’ findings. He said: “We believe our senior leadership team is performing at the highest level and they are to be congratulated on the very positive comments made by inspectors.”