A SCHOOL placed in special measures two years ago has had reason to celebrate this week after year 6 children passed their exams with flying colours.

Peover Superior Primary School was handed the title by OFSTED in 2014 after being deemed to have been failing in three key areas.

But following an overhaul of the teaching team led by head Julie Hesmondhalgh, the school has this week has secured results which have seen 100 per cent of pupils meeting standards in punctuation, spelling and grammar, while 80 per cent meeting the standards in reading, writing and maths.

This comes at a time when results nationally have been much lower, almost half of children failed to meet the new standard, following a controversial move by the government to bring in 'rigorous' exam testing.

Mrs Hesmondhalgh said: "Being placed in special measures was a very tough time for the pupils, parents and teachers.

"At this point, the school made a commitment that we would not just meet the standards, but we would exceed them.

"We teach our children about ‘resilience’ and this has never been more relevant. We got knocked down, but our fantastic team at Peover got up stronger and more determined than ever.

"Parents gave us their full support and we have worked hard to achieve the outstanding academic success that we now enjoy.

"The future is bright for Peover pupils. We work as part of a Multi-Academy Trust and a Teaching School Alliance with links to the latest research and development.

"Our school has become part of one of the first five national Education Endowment Foundation/Institute of Effective Education Research Schools, ensuring that we are continually at the forefront of ground-breaking innovation in teaching and learning.

"Everything we do has a proven track record, linking the very best educational research to what works in the classroom. The impact this has on our children is evident."

Jo Whitby, who is a parent at the school, told the Guardian that all the parents were proud of the school.

“This school is small but mighty," she said.

"We are so thankful to the teachers and pupils for the effort that they have put in. This school is a hidden gem in Cheshire, with just 20 pupils in a class and brilliant teachers.

"They have so much individual attention and the teaching is superb.

"We are so proud of them all."

Johnny Ardern, a year 6 pupil at the school, said: "We have worked very hard over the last year but our teacher Mr Birtwistle has made it easy to learn and it’s been lots of fun too.

"We’ve had empty classroom days where we have worked outside all day, we’ve built a kit car, played in our brass band, won lots of sporting events and competed in the Dragon’s Den and we’ve still managed to fit SATs in too.”