A RURAL independent school near Ludlow has been told by inspectors it's excellent in all areas.

Moor Park School in Richard's Castle was given the top grades after an inspection over three days in June by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI). Equivalent to Ofsted, they judge the quality of independent schools and for Moor Park it was an improvement on the previous positive report from 2011.

Headmaster Charlie Minogue said: "This report highlights both the historical strengths of Moor Park together with the improvements to the school made over the last few years, made possible due to the excellent working relationships between staff, pupils and parents.

"It is well-deserved recognition of the hard work contributed by everyone.

"We are keen to give children an advantage in a rapidly changing, artificial intelligence dominated, world where the right thinking skills are likely to be as important as knowledge.

"Critical thinking, curiosity, creativity, confidence, independence and resilience are all part of a Moor Park education at all level."

The Educational Quality inspection reports on the quality of outcomes for children in two key areas, the achievement of the pupils, including their academic development, and their personal development. The school were judged to be excellent in all areas, the highest rating available.

In their report, the inspectors noted pupils are typically articulate and extremely confident when speaking to others and are not afraid to speak in public. Pupils also make good and often excellent progress in their learning and listening comes easily, not just wanting to learn from teachers but from fellow students.

Personal development was rated as excellent, and inspectors said pupils display high levels of resilience, self-discipline, independence and self-confidence, and they praised the moral awareness of the pupils, underpinned by the school's Catholic ethos. Behaviour was said to be 'exemplary'.