STAFF and pupils at Halwill Primary School are celebrating, following recognition as one of the top primary schools in the country for their achievement in Key Stage 2 SAT tests.

David Laws MP, the minister of state for schools, sent a letter to the school to congratulate them on their excellent performance in the 2012 national Key Stage 2 tests, the results of which were published in December.

The results show that Halwill is among the top performing schools in Britain, their high overall percentage of pupils achieving Level 4+ combining with excellent rates of progress in both English and mathematics.

The recognition comes following a previous letter from Nick Gibb MP in March 2012 to recognise the school for being one of the top 50 schools in the country for sustained improvement at Key Stage 2.

Headteacher David Jones said: 'I cannot say how proud I am of the whole team here at Halwill Primary School — from the teachers, governors, teaching assistants, all members of staff, through to the parents and children.

'The children we have here are excellently behaved, having achieved an outstanding in the recent Ofsted report for behaviour, so they deserve a mention for that.

'It is the whole thing, everyone coming together to make Halwill a great school and I am so immensely proud of everyone.

'Hopefully now we can continue to move forwards, and get an overall outstanding assessment in our next Ofsted report.'