Teaching at two schools has been praised in their latest Ofsted reports, with lessons being described as "exciting" and "interesting".

The two Barkingside schools, Gearies Primary School, in Waremead Road, and Caterham High School, in Caterham Avenue, both received positive reports from inspectors.

Gearies school was found to be ‘outstanding’ in its first inspection since with teaching described as “always good, and often outstanding”.

The school only opened last year following the amalgamation of a former infant and junior school.

The report described lessons as “exciting” with activities to help pupils to see how different subjects relate to one another.

An example given was in a project to commemorate the outbreak of the First World War, pupils investigated the reasons why so many troops suffered from trench foot, linking history and science.

Caterham school received a ‘good’ score, better than the ‘requires improvement’ one it received in January last year.

Teachers at the secondary school were found to “have very good subject knowledge and enthusiasm for their subject”.

They were found to plan "interesting" activities in classes which engaged students.

An example given was in a Year 10 science lesson about earthquake waves, the teacher planned demonstrations and explanations related to real-life situations.