ONE of County Durham's smallest village schools has been awarded the quality mark of the Basic Skills Agency for the high standard of its teaching.

The award has been presented to the 30-pupil school at Woodland, near Barnard Castle.

Headteacher, Marilyn Gordon, said yesterday, "I am really delighted about this. It signals the fact that we have a really good school. It is a welcome feather in our cap."

The school has one full-time teacher, one part-time member of staff and a teaching assistant.

Mr Gordon said: "The quality mark proves that we are really good at teaching basic skills, mainly literacy and numeracy, which are so important. Now that we have the mark we will be inspected regularly over the next three years to ensure we retain it."

Councillor Ken Robinson, chairman of the school governors, said last night: "This shows that the quality of teaching at a school does not depend on its size. Some really excellent work is done at the smallest schools.

"A great deal of hard work has been done at Woodland School over the past year or so, and obviously it has now come to fruition. Everyone has done really well, and I am absolutely delighted."