An accurate and efficient shell element is presented. The stiffness of the shell element is decomposed into two parts with one part corresponding to stretching and bending deformation and the other part corresponding to shear deformation of the shell. Both parts of the stiffness are calculated with reduced integration rules, thereby improving computational efficiency. Shear strains are averaged on the reference surface such that neither locking phenomena nor any zero energy mode can occur. The satisfactory behaviour of the element is demonstrated in several numerical examples.