SEYMOUR Park Primary is an excellent school where standards continue to rise.' Ofsted inspectors reached this conclusion after visiting the Old Trafford school last month, giving it an outstanding grading - the highest available score.

The success comes in the centenary year of the Northumberland Road school which will be marking its 100th birthday with a host of events in March.

Anthony Rae, headteacher, said: "It is a wonderful report. To get outstanding overall is brilliant for us. We are the largest primary school in Trafford and when the inspector left he said it was a privilege to be in the school.

"We feel we work extremely hard but we also have a great element of fun and the school was said to be truly at the heart of the diverse community.

"The whole school is thrilled. We believe we are outstanding anyway but to be recognised is great.

"I'd like to thank the pupils most of all because they are what makes the school such a fabulous place but it's a team effort - the staff, parents and governors - and this is a wonderful statement."

In the Ofsted report personal development and well-being, care and guidance and leadership and management were all graded as outstanding.

Achievement and standards, teaching and learning and curriculum and activities all secured the second highest rating of good.

In the summary it stated: A powerful combination of high quality care, bold and ambitious planning and increasingly imaginative teaching make it, in the words of parents, a joyful place' where children not only have fun, but are thrilled by what they learn.'' The extended school status was also praised while the dedicated staff' were said to have responded well to the outstanding, energizing leadership and excellent management of the headteacher.' The only things the school was told it should do to improve further was to raise children's standards in extended writing and improve children's ability to understand and apply mathematical ideas.

* Does your child go to Seymour Park? What do you think the outstanding award is down to? Perhaps you would like to pay tribute to the staff? Post your comments below