A town’s secondary school is celebrating after receiving a ‘good’ rating which reported that pupils “feel valued and cared for”.

Thetford Academy, under the Inspiration Trust, was rated as good for the second time since 2014 after an Ofsted inspection took place on March 4 and 5 of this year.

The quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management and previous inspection grade all received a good rating.

But sixth-form provision was rated as requiring improvement.

The report said that the school had “a curriculum that ensures pupils deepen their thinking” and teachers made sure “pupils are not left behind”.

It states: “Pupils are happy and enjoy their time at The Thetford Academy. Pupils take part in many clubs and programmes, such as the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme. Pupils appreciate being able to learn a musical instrument.”

It was also revealed that its year 11 maths, science and modern foreign languages progress was in the top 20pc of schools nationally last year.

Dan Carter, principal of Thetford Academy, said: “I’m very proud of our team at Thetford Academy. We’ve worked hard together to raise standards and expectations, and this report is a fair reflection of that.

“We are truly committed to ensuring that Thetford has a school it can trust and be proud of. This report shows that our community can have full confidence in the quality of education that we provide.”

The Thetford Academy has also been working hard to improve behaviour and the positive results were outlined within the report.

Ofsted said the “sharp focus on getting behaviour right” and “high expectations are clear” and that “pupils aspire to meet these because they want to do well”.

Mr Carter added: “This inspection was very thorough and rigorous, and on that basis I’m very pleased that we have maintained our good grading.

“I’m pleased that Ofsted recognised how well behaved, polite and hardworking our pupils are. We will be considering Ofsted’s advice to make sure The Thetford Academy is even better when they next inspect us.

“We have exciting plans for our sixth-form and we’ll be factoring in Ofsted’s advice as we move forward with these.”