A GRAYS-based school has celebrated the end of its inaugural year by announcing substantial progress by its pupils.

The Light Christian School, which is based in the Queensage Centre, has 29 students on its roll, with a total capacity of 80. It opened in March last year.

A ribbon was cut last year to open the school by former borough mayor Tunde Ojetola and Cllr Qaisar Abbas.

A spokesperson for the school says: "We are celebrating significant pupil progress across Key Stages 1 and 2.

"To ensure absolute objectivity, we utilized externally marked assessments from Cambridge University to track our students against national benchmarks. Our verified end-of-year headlines show achievement across all core disciplines:

• - Mathematics: 92.3% of pupils are performing above their biological age.
• - Reading and Spelling: 84.6% of pupils are performing above their biological age.
• - Arithmetic: 76.9% of pupils are performing above their biological age.
• - Year 6 Cohort: 100% of our students successfully met or exceeded national expectations.

"Following a recent unannounced progress monitoring inspection on June 17, 2026, Ofsted formally validated a rapid turnaround executed by our leadership. The inspectorate confirmed that 12 out of 15 regulatory criteria previously identified as unmet are now fully satisfied. Key improvements recognized include:

• - Curriculum Design: The successful implementation of commercial curriculums tailored for mixed-age classes.
• - Early Years Provision: A complete redesign of the Early Years curriculum, with inspectors noting clear, sequential learning progression.
• - Safeguarding: Core standards for safeguarding, behavior, and attendance continue to be maintained at a high standard.

"While we continue to refine our long-term governance frameworks, our initial focus this year was to anchor a "Gold Standard" of student care, safety, and Christian ethos. These foundations are now fully validated, and our curriculum updates are delivering outstanding results."

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