A VILLAGE school united in one building for the first time in years is celebrating a national success.

Osmotherley Primary School had been operating in three buildings on one site in the centre of Osmotherley, near Northallerton.

The school had a small office building, a main building containing two classrooms, and a mobile classroom.

Work has now finished on a scheme to join the office to the main building by creating a classroom. The mobile building has been removed, leaving a larger and safer playground.

The work caused huge disruption for pupils, because a hole had to be knocked into the main school building to connect the extension.

Headteacher Penny Vernon said: "It was chaos at times, but the pupils coped really well.

"It looks like a real school now, not one that is scattered all over the place "The new playground is a lot safer than the old one because it is round the back of the school and a lot further away from the main road."

Pupils have drawn pictures to be painted on the playground, and used computer programmes to design the furniture layout for the classroom. The school, which has 43 pupils, is celebrating a national success in annual "valueadded"

scores produced by the Department for Education.

The system measures the progress made by pupils by comparing the results of assessments at the ages of seven and 11.

Osmotherley was ranked in the leading nine per cent of schools nationally in English and the leading 20 per cent of schools nationally in maths and science.

Mrs Vernon said: "This shows that the suggestion that small schools cannot be successful is rubbish. All you need is a good teacher and a good plan."

In recent months, the school has also gained a healthy schools quality mark and a basic skills quality mark for maths and English.

Mrs Vernon said: "The new building is fantastic and the school is going from strength to strength."