A primary is celebrating a "good" Ofsted report following its latest inspection.

Granby Primary, in Aylestone, Leicester, which has 452 pupils, was visited at the end of February.

Head teacher Peter Fowler said he was "delighted" and credited the hard work of everyone, including the children, for the rating – which is the second highest awarded by the education watchdog.

The school's last full inspection took place in March 2011, when it was deemed to be satisfactory.

The inspectors' new report said pupils were doing well and achieved above average standards in reading and writing. There had also been improvements in maths. Inspectors said that teaching was typically good and a small amount was outstanding.

Leaders at the school, including the governors, were praised for being the driving force behind improvements in the quality of teaching and standards.

Inspectors said pupil behaviour was good, along with attendance, and pupils had been given very memorable experiences including exciting visits, residential stays and visitors to the school.

Mr Fowler, who has led the school for 18 years, said: "It's a fantastic report and we're very pleased with the outcome. We work together as team very well and have really gelled.

"There's a great atmosphere around the school and that's reflected in the children and their response to teachers.

"I'm sure that becoming an outstanding school is well within our grasp. We know what we need to do to get there.

"We have a good relationship with parents and that's something that we're always looking to strengthen so that learning doesn't just stop when school ends."

To improve even further, inspectors said that the school should increase the proportion of outstanding teaching and ensure that learning moved at a demanding pace.

Assistant city mayor for schools, Councillor Vi Dempster, said: "This is a great achievement for Granby Primary. My congratulations to staff, governors and pupils for moving the school from satisfactory to good."

A charity that helps adults with disabilities by getting them involved in gardening could close due to a funding crisis.

The Charnwood Gardening Project, which is based in Loughborough and has been running for 18 years, needs to raise £15,000 by June to meet a funding shortfall and stave off closure.

It helps up to 34 people who have learning or physical disabilities as well as those with mental health issues, by running gardening workshops, craft sessions and other activities from its gardens in Forest Road.

Project co-ordinator Bobby Bartlett, who is employed by Voluntary Action Charnwood, said the funding situation had reached crisis point.

Mrs Bartlett, the only full-time worker who is helped by about 10 volunteers, said: "It costs about £27,000 a year for us to continue operating.

"I've been put on a redundancy notice until June. I'm told it can be extended but, unfortunately, if we can't raise £15,000 by then the project will have to close down."

Mrs Bartlett said county council austerity measures had hit the charity hard in recent years.

She said: "Until two years ago, almost our entire budget came from Leicestershire County Council's adult social services budget.

"That disappeared overnight when changes to grant funding saw personal budgets for each client introduced.

"It meant that our services were no longer free at point of access and the system was very confusing."

The project has struggled on with the help of smaller, one-off grants, fund-raising and selling its produce.

Mrs Bartlett said: "To keep us going, we've also had to dip into our reserves but they have just about run out."

Audrey Glenn, of Syston, whose autistic son Graham, 43, has been attending the gardening project twice a week for the past 17 years, said she was "very concerned" at the possible closure.

She said: "I don't know how I am going to explain to Graham that he won't be able to continue attending.

"It's helped him in so many ways, including socialising with others and giving him a bit of independence by teaching him to travel by train alone and also selling the produce. It's such an important part of his routine and is vital to his sense of confidence and wellbeing."

Mrs Bartlett said she had been inundated with messages of support from councillors, residents and other organisations, but is now desperately seeking sponsorship, from businesses in particular.

To help, or to make a donation, call 01509 631750 or e-mail: bobby.smith@voluntaryactioncharnwood.org.uk

Talks have been held about lobbying the Government to divert the proposed route of the High Speed 2 rail line.

The £32 billion track is due to cut through North West Leicestershire as it links Birmingham and Leeds.

However, politicians want the Government to rethink the route as they fear the 225mph line will blight the area.

Leon Spence, Labour's candidate for Whitwick in the upcoming Leicestershire County Council elections, has held discussions with Derby City Council leader Paul Bayliss

The city council would prefer the line to bypass North West Leicestershire and travel along the route of the A38 into Derby.

Coun Spence said: "We are in agreement that we don't want this cutting through North West Leicestershire.

"The city is putting forward a very persuasive economic case that it would regenerate Derby, which has a railway heritage.

"At the same time, it would take it away from us and avoid the planning blight and the environmental damage.

"We hope this can be achieved without too much disruption to the whole plan."

Councillor Bayliss said: "We think there is a very strong case to run the line through Derby.

"It will mean the line is shorter and it stands to reason it would be cheaper when you are looking at spending £30 million to £40 million per mile.

"Derby is already the UK's major railway manufacturing hub and would benefit greatly from being on the HS2 route."

The Government announced the proposed route of HS2 in January and is planning a consultation.

The proposed line would enter North West Leicestershire at Appleby Magna, run along the A42 corridor and through a tunnel under East Midlands Airport.

The detailed route shows HS2 emerging from the airport tunnel in the middle of a site earmarked by developer Roxhill as a rail freight depot.

Roxhill would create 6,000 jobs and secure millions of pounds for road improvement projects in the area, but this scheme and another rail freight depot could be put in jeopardy by the HS2 plans.

Leicestershire County Council deputy leader Byron Rhodes said the Conservatives – and leader Nick Rushton – had raised the issue with transport ministers and hosted talks with HS2 to find a way to save the Roxhill scheme.

Coun Rhodes said: "Nick has been making the running on this and we are grateful to have Labour on board with us."

Michael Wyatt, Liberal Democrat county councillor for the Warren Hills, in North West Leicestershire, said: "There is consensus on this.

"It makes sense and it would have our support if it went to Derby."

An spokesmen for HS2 Ltd said informal discussions were being carried out with MPs and councils along the route, with a formal consultation later in the year.

He said: "We have published a proposed route which we think is the best and that does not go through Derby. However, we will listen to the arguments."

HS2 phase has yet to be agreed by Parliament and work would not start until 2026, with no trains until at least 2032.

A 20-year-old man who floored a nightclubber with a single punch, leaving him unconscious and needing surgery for a broken jaw, has been ordered to pay his victim £5,000 compensation.

Leicester Crown Court heard Farron Browne, of Leyland Road, Braunstone Town, had admitted at an earlier hearing delivering the blow to the man's left cheek at Republic nightclub, in Sandacre Street, Leicester, on July 29 last year.

The court heard the victim needed two sessions of surgery to insert metal plates to help repair both sides of his jaw, which were fractured in the attack.

The court was shown CCTV of an incident leading up to the attack in which the man was seen speaking to Browne while he danced in the club. James Bide-Thomas, prosecuting, said: "There was an incident after that, caught on CCTV, which the complainant doesn't remember, in which the defendant appeared to follow him to another part of the club and aimed a head butt at him."

He added that minutes later Browne walked up to the man and delivered a single punch to his left cheek, causing him to fall to the ground unconscious.

He said the complainant suffered a fracture of the jaw on both sides and had to undergo two sessions of surgery.

When Browne was interviewed he denied attacking anyone and said he had a broken jaw himself at the time.

Defending, Steven Newcombe said: "It was clearly a significant injury. It's his first time before a criminal court. He is a highly-regarded young man in the local community where he coaches and tutors people younger than him at football.

"He accepts that during the incident he was clearly in drink in a club late at night. It has had a salutary effect on him – he has stopped drinking completely since the incident.

"The extent of the harm was more than he anticipated when he took the decision to deliver this single blow."

Judge Philip Head told Browne: "You were clearly the worse for drink, you were holding two bottles while you were dancing. Your victim apparently said something to you and, as he walked away, you attempted to head butt him.

"It was yet another example of drunken nightclub violence under the influence of drink. Decent people who go out in town have to see and suffer the sort of behaviour the likes of you engage in when you are drunk."

As well as paying £5,000 compensation to his victim, Browne was sentenced to 11 months in a Young Offenders Institute, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to carry out 210 hours of unpaid work in the next 12 months.

He was also ordered to be electronically tagged for four months and placed under a 7pm to 5am curfew. Browne was banned from entering any club, pub, bar or restaurant for six months and ordered to pay £500 costs.

A young basketball player has had his dreams of training at the Leicester Riders academy put on hold after being diagnosed with leukaemia.

Ellis Haggith, 16, whose older brother Reiss, 20, plays for the team, was due to take up a place at the academy in September, but now faces a two-year battle to beat the disease.

After the diagnosis last week, he has already had a bone marrow biopsy and chemotherapy treatment at the specialist unit for leukaemia at Addenbrooke's Hospital, in Cambridge.

"He will have to cope with more of the same in the coming months.

His dad, Lance, a basketball coach who was named BBC Sports' Unsung Hero for 2010 for his charity work, said: "It came as a complete hammer blow.

"Ellis had been playing a lot for various teams and his school when he became very tired.

"We were planning a holiday to Cyprus and thought he better get looked over by the doctor before he went.

"They took some blood tests and suddenly Ellis was asked to go into hospital, where we discovered his spleen and liver had swollen to three times their normal size and a biopsy was needed."

To help cheer him up, the Leicester Riders, who play their last game of the season tomorrow at Loughborough University against Newcastle Eagles, will don a "you can, you will, Ellis 5" logo on their kit in tribute to the teenager, who wears the number five shirt.

Mr Haggith said: "Ellis is being really positive and I know the team wearing their special logos means a lot to him.

"He knows basketball is going to be put on hold, but he's a real winner and sees the illness like he would an opponent on the court.

"It's just something he has to battle against."

Mr Haggith has worked with children and young people of all abilities, including disabled, vulnerable and disaffected youngsters, to provide support through basketball coaching, for the past 30 years.

He has also set up two charities to support youngsters' participation in sport and through this has made many celebrity contacts, including boxer Barry McGuigan.

"He's already been in touch to send his best wishes to Ellis. He told me his daughter was diagnosed with leukaemia as a youngster and she's now 27," said Mr Haggith.

"Ipswich Town manager Mick McCarthy has also promised to drop in to visit Ellis.

"The support he's getting is amazing and I know it's giving him a real boost."

The family, who live in Bromham, Bedfordshire, have been regular visitors to Leicester to watch Reiss play for the Riders.

Mr Haggith waited for the team's celebrations after winning the British Basketball League championship title for the first time in their history last week to calm down before breaking news of his brother to Reiss.

Keith Routledge, director of Leicester Riders, said: "He's a very promising young player and we were very much looking forward to him taking up a place with us.

"We're all very much behind him and wanted to pay tribute to him in some way.

"There will always be a place for him at the academy."

Mystery surrounds the death of a drug addict who was found in the street with a fractured skull.

Fabio Fanfarillo, 43, was discovered in a street in Leicester's West End in July and died in hospital a few days later.

An inquest into his death was held at Leicester Town Hall on Thursday.

The court heard Mr Fanfarillo was with a friend, David Farrow, on the night of July 24 last year. The pair were trying to buy drugs at the home of Clint Caines.

There was an argument, during which Mr Caines pushed Mr Fanfarillo over.

Three days later, he was dead.

The inquest heard Mr Farrow died after taking drugs a few months after Mr Fanfarillo's death, having given very little information to the police.

Mr Caines, the only remaining witness to the events, admitted to coroner Donald Coutts-Wood that he had pushed Mr Fanfarillo over.

However, his description of the incident did not tally with post-mortem examination results.

Mr Caines said Mr Fanfarillo fell on the pavement outside his home in Lavender Road, in the West End. However, pathologist Stuart Hamilton told the inquest the fatal injury happened about two feet away, with Mr Fanfarillo falling against a broken section of wall where blood was found.

He said Mr Fanfarillo had alcohol, heroin and methadone in his system at the time of the incident.

Mr Caines said Mr Fanfarillo had been acting in a "volatile" way before he pushed him over.

He said: "He knocked on my window and I went to the front door. Fabio and David Farrow were there. I didn't know them at that time.

"They wanted to know if they could get some drugs and I said 'There's no drugs here'.

"Fabio just walked off and David Farrow started apologising for knocking on the door and for Fabio's abusive language.

"Fabio spun round and was like, 'Don't apologise for me'.

"He was volatile and started walking and staggering and coming in my direction. His arms were waving.

"He got an arm's distance away and he swung at me. I moved out the way and palmed him off. It was a natural reaction – I pushed him.

"He fell on his bum and went back. I said 'go away' and went inside and made a cup of tea."

A few minutes later, Mr Caines went outside and found Mr Fanfarillo on the ground. He died at Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham on July 27.

Mr Coutts-Wood recorded an open verdict, stating it was impossible to say whether Mr Caines had caused the injury or whether Mr Fanfarillo had stood up again after being shoved by Mr Caines and then fallen over, smashing his head on the wall.

Mr Coutts-Wood said: "We are very restricted in what we had from Mr Farrow before his demise and we have no-one else who saw what happened in the incident.

"Was Mr Fanfarillo moved? Was he assisted up? Did he fall again? We don't have that evidence."

There's a new group taking the charts by storm – and a husky from Leicestershire is the star of the show.

Hindi act RaOol's new single Meri Rani (Set to Blow) became the most downloaded world music song on iTunes last week, thanks to support from BBC Radio 1 and Asian music fans around the globe.

The video, featuring Oadby pooch Zeus, has also had more than 100,000 views on YouTube.

The 18-month-old dog now has his own Facebook page – and has been posting messages to fans to let them know he is the group's star.

Lead singer D Wunder, who spent the first three years of his life in Rushey Mead, Leicester, before moving to Australia, returned to his home town to recruit Zeus, an 18-month-old husky belonging to family friend Jaz Johal.

D said: "RaOol began in 2010 when me and Macks Wolf, the producer, started the band and decided to name it in honour of Rahul Dev Burman, who was a big producer of Indian music in the 1960s.

"When Macks came up with it I said 'Rahuuuul!' like a wolf cry and the whole wolf thing started."

However, the pair quickly realised getting a real wolf would not be easy.

"Hiring a real wolf is really difficult," D said. "There's a lot of legislation because they're a protected species, but luckily a friend of mine in Leicester had Zeus and told us he was pretty wolf-like.

"It's been great. Our fans and friends are known as the Wolf Pack and Zeus has his own Facebook page and writes lots of messages about how he's the star of the band and how he's on the lookout for girl wolves."

Macks said: "He's a real prima donna. He loves the limelight and it was clear when we made the video that it was going to be his way or the highway.

"Sometimes he just turn his back to the camera and takes a nap!"

Jaz, a Nottingham University student, said he was delighted with Zeus's fame.

He said: "It's great if they want to have Zeus in their band and use his good looks. He does look a lot like a wolf.

"When I walk him around Oadby I get a lot of people commenting on him. He's also got different coloured eyes, which makes some people a bit scared of him.

"But he's a great dog and if he understood that 100,000 people had watched his video he'd be really chuffed."

Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson said he is not willing to let all his side's hard work this season be jeopardised by their current abysmal run of form.

City have plummeted from second to seventh in the Championship after just one victory from their last 11 league games.

That is in stark contrast to the side's run throughout January, which saw them win five on the bounce.

With just six games left and two points outside the play-offs, City face an extremely tough run-in, starting with today's trip to Brighton (3.0), followed by Birmingham, Bolton, Crystal Palace, Watford and Nottingham Forest.

A win this afternoon would see City leapfrog the Seagulls back into the top six, but Pearson admitted his side have left themselves an awful lot to do.

"We are at that stage in the season where we have worked so hard to get into a good position," he said.

"But during the last two months, not always through playing badly, we have had too many days where we have not done enough.

"Now whether that is through lacking confidence or being out of sorts, or a day like Barnsley where we were very poor, we have given ourselves an awful lot to do.

"We are much better than that, it's the same group of players who have put in some outstanding performances this season and yet, against Barnsley, for long periods, the performance was unacceptable.

"We have got a group of players who have shown a lot of quality throughout the season, but it's not happening for us at the moment.

"We have got to rectify it because I am not prepared to see the majority of the season's hard work continue to be put at risk through turning out performances like that."

The squad was treated to a visit from Aiyawatt 'Top' Srivaddhanaprabha yesterday.

City's vice-chairman wished the players and the staff well as they head into the final six games of the season.

Pearson said it is now all about getting back to winning ways in today's make-or-break clash at the Amex Stadium.

"It is really a case now of trying to get back to doing the basics better, and giving ourselves the best chance of getting a play-off place during the next six games," he said.

"The immediate need is to inject the belief back into the players but, to do that, you've got to be open and frank and honest about it.

"It is a bit of a conundrum that remains a difficult one to solve until we actually get back to winnings ways.

"The lack of confidence within the group is such that we look a fragile side at the moment.

"We have got to try to halt the slide we have been experiencing, and we all have the opportunity of achieving what we have set out to do.

"There is still an awful lot to play for, talk is one thing, but doing it is a completely different thing.

"If we continue to perform in the manner that we have done recently, then that will make it very difficult.

"We've got to get back to getting out on the pitch and doing it in a positive manner, and I know as soon as we do that we'll get back to winning games."

A medical centre manager who embezzled £59,000 of surgery funds has been jailed for three years.

Ashok Patel, who brought Leicester's Highfields Health Centre to the brink of bankruptcy, was sentenced yesterday after being convicted of three counts of fraud.

Judge Robert Brown, at Leicester Crown Court, said 54-year-old Patel was not content with his "handsome salary" of £53,000 a year.

He told him: "You realised it was easy to steal from the practice and you duped the senior partners into signing blank cheques.

"You're a conman and you conned your way into the position of practice manager.

"You falsely claimed to have a degree from the University of Leicester, when you didn't have a degree from any university.

"You gained the trust of the doctors and pretended to be a devout Hindu, as your employer, Dr Jatin Patel, was."

During the trial, Dr Patel told the court Ashok Patel's actions could have forced the centre to close, with the loss of 25 jobs and affecting 8,000 patients.

Judge Brown said: "You also accused Dr Patel of lying and claimed the doctors conspired to remove you from your job, but the jury rejected that."

The court heard the health centre's NHS-funded surgeries, in Melbourne Road, Highfields, and Moira Street, Belgrave, were saved thanks to a £25,000 insurance pay-out.

Dr Patel, whose father started the practice 30 years ago, attended the hearing.

Speaking afterwards, he said: "I was hoping for a longer sentence but justice has been done, if only to protect others from this guy's clutches.

"He's been proven to be an out-and-out fraudster."

Dr Patel said despite everything Ashok had done, the practice was going from "strength to strength".

Ashok, of Blundell Road, Evington, Leicester, had denied the charges.

But the court heard he diverted thousands of pounds into his own bank accounts, drawing out large sums in cash and obtaining goods and services for himself, between March 2008 and July 2010.

He was cleared of one fraud offence alleging he misappropriated £1,000.

Balraj Bhatia, mitigating, said six references spoke well of the defendant, who had carried out cricket coaching and charitable work.

He said: "It's easy to simply dismiss him as a manipulative, dishonest man but there's another side to his character. He's not entrenched in dishonesty."

Mr Bhatia said the defendant's 77-year-old mother relied on him for daily care and that he was suffering from ill health, including depression.

"He no longer has that confidence, some may call it arrogance, that he showed in the face of the evidence," he said.

Mr Bhatia also said that, at the last hearing, it was wrongly stated he had a previous conviction for taking £850 while working for Burger King.

Mr Bhatia said Ashok had never worked for the chain and the conviction related to him using a false name to obtain income protection insurance and attempting to obtain property in that way.

The sun shone on more than 100 cyclists who joined paralysed mum Claire Lomas during a training session around Rutland Water yesterday.

The 32-year-old was delighted so many of her friends and supporters managed to get on their bikes to raise money for two spinal injury charities.

Originally, she had hoped more than 60 people from across the East Midlands would join her on the 18-mile training ride in preparation for her 400-mile cycle tour of England.

Claire, from Eye Kettleby, near Melton, who was left paralysed from the waist down following a riding accident in May 2007, said: "I was worried that the cold weather and the bitter wind of the past weeks would put people off.

"But the sun smiled on us and we had a great time. There were more than 100 people who took part.

"I had lots of people from Nottingham Trent University who came along and who made it a great day. The course was quite flat and there was no wind."

Everyone who went on the ride donated at least £5, which will be shared between the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation and Spinal Research.

Claire said: "I have no idea how much was raised but one of my friends did very well and raised £500 in sponsorship on her own."

The proceeds will go towards a bid to raise £100,000 for Spinal Research, which is working to develop treatments for people such as Claire who have suffered severe injuries.

Already, more than £22,000 has been pledged on her Just Giving page.

Claire, who completed the London Marathon wearing a special suit in 17 days last year, sets off on her 400-mile trip visiting schools in a few weeks.

She said she was undertaking the ride in memory of Catherine Kouam, who suffered a similar injury to her in 2010 and who contacted her via Claire's website.

Claire said: "I visited her in hospital and we became friends. Sadly, Catherine died on August 26 last year due to complications.

"She will be missed by so many and I want to do this bike ride in memory of her. I know she would love to have seen a cure for spinal injuries."

Claire will cycle around England using a specially adapted machine.

During the 20-day trip, she will be joined by celebrities including former Olympic athlete Denise Lewis and rugby international Gethin Jones.

Claire will be meeting youngsters at dozens of schools and talking to them about fighting on through adversity and enjoying an active lifestyle.

If you would like to sponsor Claire on her cycle challenge, text "legs60£3£ to 70070 or visit:

www.justgiving.com/ Claire-Lomas