AN OXFORD school formerly in special measures has been rated good with outstanding features.

Pegasus Primary School, in Field Road, Blackbird Leys, is one of the largest primary schools in the city.

Many of its 445 pupils have special needs or disabilities.

As well as a good overall rating, eight aspects of the school were ranked outstanding, including the effectiveness of leadership and management, the effectiveness of care, guidance and support and the way the school promotes community cohesion.

Headteacher Jill Hudson said she was delighted with the results: “It’s about believing our children are capable of anything, meeting their needs and inspiring them.

“We try and make learning just the most exciting thing in the world for children. They bubble about it and that’s what we want.”

Ofsted inspector Mike Capper described Mrs Hudson’s leadership as “inspirational” and described the school as one where pupils flourish and “develop a belief that anything is possible if you work hard”.

In a survey of parents carried out as part of the inspection, all 54 who responded said their children enjoyed school, felt their children were safe and that the teaching at Pegasus was good.

Mrs Hudson said: “The fact that many of our children come from difficult backgrounds shapes our determination.

“They may have barriers to their learning, but they are still children and they are capable of enormous success, but you have to really believe it.

“It’s too easy to say they’ve got a difficult background and give up on them, but we won’t do that. We know they can achieve and we won’t settle for anything less.”

While the inspectors visited, pupils were working on the theme ‘behind bars’, which ranged from Sleeping Beauty for the youngest pupils, to Anne Frank for older children to Burmese pro-democracy prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi in the higher classes.

Mrs Hudson said: “We don’t believe in patronising children or babying them, we deal with real issues, really exciting stuff, and it inspires them.”

The school was inspected under a new, tougher Ofsted framework which has seen a number of schools go into special measures or be issued with a notice to improve.

Mrs Hudson added: “We are enormously proud of the children, the staff and the families and school partners. They say it takes a village to raise a child. We think it takes a whole city to educate a child."

The school was put into special measures in October 1997, although rated as good in 2006, but had fewer outstanding features.

fbardsley@oxford.co.uk