Staff and pupils at a primary school have two reasons to celebrate with the arrival of some very important news.

The first letter came from Nick Gibb, Minister of State for School Standards, who congratulated Oulton Broad Primary School for being among the top 2pc of schools in England for the progress pupils make in key stage one and two.

Mr Gibb highlighted the very high level of progress that pupils make in reading, writing and mathematics, and thanked the school for its hard work and professionalism.

School headteacher Jamie White said the letter came out of the blue and made him incredibly proud.

He said: 'We knew our progress scores were good but the letter came out of the blue and we didn't realise quite how good they were, so it was a really nice surprise.

'Everyday I get children knocking on my door wanting to show me a piece of work they have done and handing out stars to pupils gives me a real buzz. And receiving news like this is just the icing on the cake.'

The second piece of good news came with the approval of the school's application to become a National Support School, with Mr White also being announced as a National Leader of Education.

The school applied to the Department for Education back in November, and had to demonstrate how it already supports other schools and how effective its work is, the high standards it has at its own school and its capacity to continue helping others.

Mr White, who has been headteacher for just over five years, said: 'It will formalise the work we have already been doing supporting other local schools and allows the great staff we have got here to share our good practice.

'All of our staff want what is best for the children here and this is about wanting what is best for children full stop, so that includes children outside of our school too.

'I'm really proud of what the children and staff here have achieved and the idea that we can now influence and support other children excites me. It's not something that there is much of locally.'