A school in St Albans is one of the first to achieve the status of ‘World-Class’, according to school inspectors.

Sandringham School in The Ridgeway has been awarded a World Class Schools Quality Mark, following a process taking nearly a year to assess the quality of work at the school.

The World Class Schools Quality Mark is the new standard in education for schools that have moved beyond outstanding.

The WCSQM provides parents, universities and businesses with what they want to know, and enhance England's internationally esteemed reputation for secondary education.

Matthew O’Connor, representing the World Class Schools Quality Mark team, formally presented senior sixth form students with their status.

As part of the assessment for the award, students and staff from the early adopter schools took part in a conference at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.

Selected students then had to undertake an assessment day at Winton Primary School, London.

The students were divided into teams with students from other schools, and led on a significant development of the campus at Winton Primary School throughout the day.

Students were divided into teams and had to lead the entire event. Trained assessors monitored the work of the students and judged them against strict leadership criteria.

The students who represented Sandringham were Chloe Guy, Sam Tanton and Jessica Timbs from year 12. They were outstanding ambassadors for the school and for World Class young people, and passed the assessment with flying colours.

Alan Gray, head teacher at the school said.: "There are occasions in life when something comes along that matches perfectly with your current thinking.

"The World Class Schools Quality Mark is a great example of this. We were already defining our next steps beyond ‘outstanding’, and ‘World Class’ was the obvious choice.

Being one of the first schools to be recognised with this prestigious award is a real privilege for us, and one that we will embrace fully as an early ambassador for the programme.

"We hope that through this status, the quality of provision at English state schools is recognised on the World stage and supports our on-going drive to raise educational standards for all children, wherever they happen to live."

Sandringham is now working with three of the other early adopter schools to develop an international portfolio and support the improvement of schools in Third World Countries.