YOUNGSTERS at Crowcombe First School make good progress and achieve good standards.

That was the verdict in a report published by the Office for Standards in Education this week.

An Ofsted inspector also visited Stogumber First School, and found that overall effectiveness, achievement and standards were satisfactory.

The inspectors said that federating the schools had provided pupils with exciting opportunities such as sports coaching.

It had also helped teachers who were able to share ideas and plan work together.

Crowcombe, with 38 pupils on the school role, scored good' grades in all aspects of the school's work.

The inspector said standards of reading and mathematics were good, but the school was not doing quite as well in writing.

The inspector also said pupils should be given more time to choose their own activities.

At Stogumber, which had just 18 pupils, the school scored good' or satisfactory' grades in all respects.

The inspector said: "This school successfully contributes to, and benefits from being part of, a federation with Crowcombe.

"Good leadership and management, joint planning and shared expertise contribute successfully to pupils' learning.

"(The school) provides a satisfactory standard of education. This represents considerable improvement since the schools were federated."

However, the inspector said the school needed to raise standards of speaking, listening and writing, developing pupils' use of vocabulary, sentence construction and handwriting, to give pupils more confidence in expressing themselves.