Calne's Springfields Academy is celebrating after being recognised as the most outstanding school in the country.

Springfields won outstanding special school of the year, as well as the overall outstanding school award at the Times Educational Supplement Schools Awards.

For a school which was being considered for closure just eight years ago, it marks an incredible turnaround.

Headteacher Trystan Williams said: “Springfields is a school which could have been closed down in 2004 or 2005. To first be recognised as outstanding by Ofsted and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Schools, and now these awards, is just amazing.

“It is tribute to the staff members and their desire to keep pushing the boundaries and looking at new ways of educating children.”

Their Extreme Classrooms concept, which has seen pupils travel to some of the most demanding climates on earth, was cited as one of the reasons behind their success.

In fact, Mr Williams was in Tanzania with the Maasai Warriors, taking part in the school’s latest adventure, when the news of the school’s victory broke.

Springfields is the first special school to ever have received the overall award and Mr Williams said it represents a change in the perception of non-mainstream education.

He said: “When people really come in to schools like ours and see what goes on, it opens their eyes. There has always been a level of care in special schools, but what has not always been there is an appropriate level of learning in class.

“Five years ago a good lesson would be one where the teacher kept all of the children in the classroom. That is not the expectation here. I expect outstanding lessons the same as I would in a mainstream school.

“It is all about expectations and aspirations.

“If you want to plod along and use the label of special needs as an excuse, you won’t get far. You should use that as a challenge to show labels don’t really count.

“It is about developing self-belief in children and the resilience to show they can play a part in society.”