EDUCATION inspectors have praised an East Lancashire grammar school just weeks after it was criticised by a judge for discriminating against a disabled pupil.

An OFSTED report has described Clitheroe Royal Grammar School as "self-evaluating, developing and very good value for money".

They also said headteacher Stuart Holt's determination to ensure pupils enjoyed the highest-quality learning in lessons and the broader life of the school was at the core of his "outstanding" leadership.

Last month, district judge Gordon Ashton decided the school's decision to ban 16-year-old Tom White from a trip to France fell foul of the Disability Discrimination Act and was "fatally flawed".

He was prevented from going on the trip in 2000 after suffering a diabetic blackout during a school skiing trip in February 1999.

The school argued it was his behaviour and not his disability that had been the basis for the decision.

The case was taken up by the Disability Rights Commission in what is thought to have been the first disability discrimination case against a school.

Government OFSTED inspectors visited the school in March, a month before it was ordered to pay Tom £3,000 in compensation.

The report said: "This is an excellent school. In 2001, its results in national tests placed it among the top five per cent in the country, as well as the top five per cent of all selective grammar schools."

Inspectors praised high results and good pupil achievement in exams, while teaching and learning across the school was described as "very good and sometimes excellent".

But they also said the school was slow to respond to the concern of parents, that more demands could be made of the highest attainers and pupils were not always treated with trust, being unable to stay in the building during breaks.

They said: "Rigour and scholarship at the backbone of much good teaching is not consistently matched by an equal focus on how different pupils and students learn most effectively.

"Information and communication technology is not yet a dynamic and motivating force at the heart of learning, despite pupils and students showing good individual awareness of its potential."

They added: "The school is not complacent. The headteacher, staff and governors have taken careful note of the suggestion for improvement and an action plan has already been formulated."

The school said it welcomed the Ofsted report.