A SECONDARY school has completed a round of "successful" Ofsted reports since an educational development opened.

Haughton Community School, part of Darlington's £37m Education Village, has received a satisfactory report from Ofsted inspectors.

It follows a similar report for Springfield Primary School, and a good verdict, with some outstanding features, for Beaumont Hill Technology College, both in 2007.

Dame Dela Smith, executive director and principal of the Education Village, said it was a "huge success" for the village since it opened in 2006.

The inspection of the school, which has 900 students, took place at the start of December. Its previous inspection was in 2004.

The overall grade for the school was satisfactory. Four areas of the school were also identified as satisfactory, with curriculum and support aspects both marked as good.

The inspection report said: "Haughton Community School provides a satisfactory standard of education.

"The school is emerging from turbulent times during which it has become part of a federation with a new leadership structure, moved to a new site and high numbers of staff have left and joined the school.

"This extended period of change and staffing difficulty had a significantly negative impact on students' progress in recent years.

"However, the school leadership team working in partnership with the local authority have worked relentlessly to raise standards and ensure that achievement is now satisfactory."

Reacting to the report, Dame Dela said the students and staff were a "great credit" to the school.

She added: "There are some very good things in the report that can be highlighted. We have now had a period since coming into the village. Achievement has been satisfactory and improving.

"The good care, support and guidance and good curriculum have made a strong contribution to increasing the proportion of students have gained five A*-C GCSE results.

"Also highlighted is the positive climate of learning in the school. That is really good."

Inspectors also highlighted three areas for the school to improve further.

They are to raise standards in core subjects, ensure tasks and activities meet the needs of all students and assess data to monitor and eliminate underachievement.

Dame Dela added: "The central findings of the inspection team mirror our plans anyway.

"There were no surprises. The team were clear that we knew our school and the areas for development."