THE chief inspector of schools, Chris Woodhead, is often portrayed as the scourge of teachers, but had nothing but praise for the education system when he turned up in South Lakeland.

He was at Dallam School at the invitation of his former trainee and continuing friend, head teacher Alan Mottershead, who has declared his aim to make Dallam the best school in the county.

Certainly the school's A level results put Dallam among the top 30 comprehensives in the country.

But there is plenty of competition for the top spot in South Lakeland, as has been highlighted at the spate of awards evenings recently.

Up the road in Kirkby Lonsdale Mr Woodhead's cohorts from Ofsted were giving one of their short inspections, accorded to only the best of schools, to Queen Elizabeth.

Their report read like a definition of the very best educational establishment.

Academic achievement, environment, care, behaviour, attitudes, social development, opportunities, value for money, extracurricular activities and management skills were all singled out for praise.

QES head teacher Chris Clarke quite rightly took enormous pride in his school's performance at its own awards evening.

GCSE results put QES in the top 20 comprehensives in the country and made it the best rural comprehensive in the North and Midlands.

Mr Clarke has a clear vision of what a good comprehensive should be.

It includes providing a varied programme of events and opportunities; helping all pupils make the best of their abilities, with high expectations for all; and a cheerful respect for each other, whether fellow pupils, teachers or ancillary workers.

The image of comprehensives has taken a battering over the years, yet throughout South Lakeland there are glowing examples of the system working at its best.

Over the last couple of years there has been almost a complete replacement of head teachers in South Lakeland's secondary system.

The new breed has made an encouraging start and seems determined to maintain the standards which have served the area so well for many years.

The Government this week firmly placed improvements to secondary school education at the centre of its platform for re-election.

That message could be a double-edged sword for areas of the country where the system is already excellent.

If the Government's solutions are aimed at bringing the rest of the country up to the standards of South Lakeland, then all well and good.

If it starts to introduce policies which interfere with or hinder the schools which are already achieving, then it will do the education system as a whole a disservice for which it will never be forgiven.

Nationally, there is enormous ground to be made up.

Locally, the whole community should rejoice in the excellence of its state secondary system.

Even Mr Woodhead could learn from South Lakeland's schools.