Delighted staff and pupils from around the borough are celebrating now that eight schools in Harrow have been praised for being among the best in the country by watchdog Ofsted.

Newton Farm Nursery, First and Middle School, Stag Lane Middle School and Pinner Park First School, were singled out for praise after getting outstanding inspection reports in the past year.

Three secondary schools in the borough - Harrow High School and Sports College, The Sacred Heart Language College and Rooks Heath High School - were also hailed for their consistent high standards, along with Alexandra School and Shaftesbury High School, which teach pupils with learning difficulties.

Rekha Bhakoo, headmistress at Newton Farm Nursery, First and Middle School, is delighted to have been recognised as outstanding. She said: "We relentlessly pursue excellence at Newton Farm. That is our job. We ensure that we work as a team and we like to push the boundaries to pursue projects that will make our pupils life learners. We want them to reach for the stars."

Vivien Swaida, headteacher of Harrow High School and Sports College is pleased with her school's performance. She said: "I am passionate about improving the life chances of the young people in our care.

"We set high standards and the significant improvements made by the school were recognised by Ofsted and validated by the outstanding results achieved in the summer. To appear on the outstanding providers list is another richly deserved accolade for the school."

In London, 175 schools, 260 child care providers, four colleges and one adult learning provider were judged to be providing outstanding care, education or skills in the report, which was released last Wednesday.

Her Majesty's chief inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills Christine Gilbert said: "It's encouraging to see so much outstanding provision across all areas of education and care and I pay tribute to all who contributed to this success.

"Congratulations are also particularly deserved for those schools and colleges categorised as outstanding in each of their inspection reports over the past 15 years and for those schools previously judged inadequate but now providing outstanding education."