SUCCESS is resounding in the ears of students and staff at Rawthorpe High School.
Eighty young musicians from the school are to play on radio this Christmas.
The steel pan players' and singers' performance will be broadcast on BBC Radio Leeds on Christmas day - and it is also likely to featured on other radio shows nationally.
The musical high-note is also marking the once-failing school's successful Ofsted inspection last week.
A two-day visit last Wednesday and Thursday pronounced the school as "good" overall. Rawthorpe came out of special measures in November last year after more than two and a half years.
Associate headteacher Mrs Lynne Copley said: "There's a real buzz around the school. I came here in 2005 as acting headteacher and Rawthorpe had taken a real battering.
"The progress which the school has made in the last two years is fantastic and it is great to see all the hardwork of students and staff rewarded in this way."
Mrs Copley, who retires this Christmas, described the school's new headteacher Joan Young as "inspirational".
Ms Young joined the school last September. She is a former head of the much publicised Henry Mellish School in Nottingham, which she helped pull out of special measures last year.
Since her appointment the school introduced incentives for all year 11 pupils, including three day residentials at a hotel in Matlock Bath, learning motivational study and revision techniques, personalised timetables, breakfast study sessions and revision skills.
These led to its best GCSE results ever this summer. The number of students achieving at least five grade A to C passes has more than doubled from 21% last year to more than half of the 90 year 11 students this year.
Ms Young said: "My vision for the school is to make sure every child here has the aspirations to achieve the best grades he or she possibly can.
"We want to create the pathways to ensure they achieve whatever is within their reach."
And the hard work is to continue.
Mrs Copley said: "We are working with the primary headteachers to see how Rawthorpe can become a focus of educational excellence for the whole area."
Two of the earliest messages of congratulations were from Joan Rock, head of Rawthorpe St James Infant and Nursery school and Ian Williamson, head of Rawthorpe Juniors.
"The three schools work very closely together and we are delighted at the high school's success" said Mr Williamson.
"We are looking forward to strengthening those links, especially through the bid for specialist status. It is a very exciting time for the Rawthorpe community."
