Your School: Ponteland Middle School

Headteacher Dr Caroline Pryer said: "The children say they love being fit and healthy because that's what makes them happy, which is nice.

"There are pre, during and after school sports activities and extra curricular activities for all children in school."

Although the level of sporting achievement is something the school is rightfully proud of, it is not its only focus, as the children do well academically, too.

The latest Ofsted report gave Ponteland Middle a glowing report, and placed it in the elite band of schools nationally that achieved the level of "outstanding" in every category and subcategory.

This is reinforced with a variety of extra curricular activities, including chess, crafts and cookery, which help to give the children a broad education.

The staff are also in the process of improving their "profiling" of each child - identifying where each pupil is up to in every subject so that they can talk about their own progress.

Dr Pryer said: "We do everything we can for the children to reach their potential and we're prudent about taking care of our young adolescents."

Name of school: Ponteland Middle.

Type of school: Middle School.

Main findings of most recent Ofsted report:

Ofsted September 2008: Ponteland Middle is an outstanding school where pupils thrive. PCMS rises to the rank of the top 5% of schools nationally who have achieved outstanding in all Ofsted levels and sublevels.

How would you describe the school's ethos and values?

Our mission statement is taken from John 10:10 - that they have life and have it abundantly. This means that we ensure that we do everything we can for the children to reach their potential and that we're prudent about taking care of our young adolescents.

What are the school's main strengths?

96% of our children have five or more hours of sport a week. They say they love being fit and healthy because that's what makes them happy. We have updated modern facilities in food and textiles, science and music, where these refurbished areas have been supported by the friends' association.

What areas are the school trying to improve?

We are trying to improve our pupil profiling. This means we are tracking every child's performance in all subjects, ensuring that each child can talk about their learning, their current progress and their future targets. We are also trying to ensure that parents understand these targets and their child's progress.

What extra-curricular activities and out-of-school provision does the school have?

Pre, during and after school sports activities and extra curricular activities for all children in school. We have clubs in arts, music, dance, chess, crafts and cookery. There's a magazine that we've done, an animation club and one of the most exciting things we did was that we created a human flag of the Kenyan flag as we are committed to supporting our link school - Wanga Primary School in Mbita, Kenya.

Most recent A-Level/GCSE/SAT results:

Our Key Stage Two results are within the top five positions in the Northumberland league tables. Our pupils make outstanding progress from year five to year eight including the Gifted and Talented children, middlers and SEN (Special Educational Needs) pupils.

How does the school get involved in the local community?

We support the Ponteland Lions through the annual swimarathon, the Litter for Literacy, where we pick up litter, and the Lions give money for reading books for the classroom libraries. We're involved in Northumbria in Bloom and Northumberland Wildlife Trust - we've adopted a red kite and called her Soar.

We support the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, and we do the peace posters for the Lions club. We have sports leaders in years seven and eight who help run fixtures and festivals. We're involved in Ponteland in the Park bulb planting. There's also a local park where one of our pupils identified a great crested newt.

What is the school's proudest achievement(s)?

Apart from our outstanding Ofsted inspection last autumn, we're most proud of our pupils. They love coming to school, they enjoy learning in different styles and they love being safe, listened to and respected. They are excellent, articulate ambassadors for the school.