STAFF and students at Uplands Community Primary are celebrating after the school received a special letter of congratulations from the minister of state for schools David Laws MP.

The high-profile Lib Dem wrote to the headteacher Richard Lucas to praise his school's 'excellent performance' after pupils achieved SATS results which rank among the most improved in the country.

Uplands has been placed among the 100 top performing primary schools in England following annual improvements over a three year period in the number of pupils achieving Level 4 and above in their SATS tests.

"It gives me great pleasure to congratulate you on the excellent performance of your pupils in the 2012 national Key Stage 2 tests," Mr Laws wrote in the letter.

"The year on year improvement in the percentage of your pupils achieving level 4 plus place your school amongst the 100 top performing primary schools for sustained improvement.

"Your results also show that your pupils achieved 100 per cent for Level 4 plus achievement, with 100 per cent also making expected progress in both English and mathematics."

Uplands headteacher Mr Lucas hailed the achievement as a 'real team effort' and said everyone at the school was 'very pleased' that their hard work had been recognised.

"We are obviously very proud of this achievement by our pupils, staff and governors but it is only a small part of what we do," said Mr Lucas, who has been head for three and a half years.

"We also do our best to get pupils ready for the secondary school curriculum and to ensure that they carry on making excellent progress, which is really important for their life chances."