A Worcester school has been told the quality of its RE and Catholic life is outstanding.

Blessed Edward Oldcorne Catholic College was given the good news as part of its latest inspection by the Diocesan Education Service.

Faith schools are inspected for the quality of their RE and Catholic life under section 48 of the Education Act.

At the Timberdine Avenue school, an inspector found GCSE results for RE at the college had stayed at or above national and diocesan averages and there had been a significant rise in the number of A*s and As.

Disadvantaged students made greater progress than average for the college.

The inspector found students learned very quickly due to their excellent behaviour and the high standard of teaching over time which motivated them.

Teachers planned and analysed their lessons in minute detail and shared resources with colleagues.

The report said data was more clearly recorded for older students than younger ones, although the younger ones had still progressed rapidly.

The inspector found the school encouraged students to express opinions on the big questions of life and faith and students enjoyed RE.

It was also praised for its teaching about other faiths and how it enabled students from other faith communities to be ambassadors.

Provision for students who are not Catholics had been sensitively developed and students from other faiths responded enthusiastically to requests to speak about their life of faith.

The deputy principal had been given the role as leader of Catholic life and the school has plans to attach a team of five priest chaplains to a specific year group.

The College was told it should ensure its improvement plans are comprehensive and include links with evaluation and clearly prioritised tasks.

Sean Devlin, the school's principal, said: "I'm very pleased with the outcome and the RE department are very pleased.

"I'm pleased because it celebrates our ethos.

"We are a multi-faith school and the report showed the children were able to talk about different faiths which is so important today along with understanding and respecting each other's faiths."

"We also had a higher percentage of A* and A grades (in RE) than before but all the time we are trying to improve and provide better results."