A primary school previously criticised for poor teaching and dwindling pupil numbers is celebrating after a “good” Ofsted rating.

Parkside Community Primary School in Sturry, Canterbury, was rated as requires improvement back in 2019 after inspectors felt the school was not preparing children "well enough for life in modern Britain".

But now, after four years of hard work, renovations and pupil numbers doubling in size, the school was graded ‘good’ in all areas at its latest inspection in April.

In the report, inspectors said: “Leaders have worked tirelessly to create a safe and inspiring haven for all pupils so that they can ‘REACH’ high, through the school values of ‘resilience, effort, aspiration, courtesy and honesty’.

“Pupils love coming to this culturally diverse school.

“They feel secure and valued because staff understand their individual needs.

“All pupils have opportunities to learn the curriculum outdoors in the extensive forest school.”

Since 2019, the school in Tennyson Avenue has increased its pupil intake from 85 pupils to 175.

Where previously there was four classes with mixed ages, there are now seven, split by year group.

The latest rating is something executive headteacher James Williams feels has been a long time coming.

He says school’s turn-around is one of the biggest achivements in his career.

“At the school I joined in 2018, the children's chances were not being fulfilled,” he explained.

‘This is probably the biggest achievement of my career...’

“But now after a huge team effort, we will now send children out of this area of Canterbury with much better chances in life.

“We have given them a wider world view and hopefully some wider aspirations.

“The school had its challenges and we wanted to engage the community because for too long some of the needs of the children were not being met.

“We had to make it a place where parents were happy to come in and they were given appropriate answers to their questions.

“I have been teaching for 27 years and this is probably the biggest achievement of my career.”

It has taken four years to upgrade the rating, and Mr Williams says the task has not been without its challenges.

“We worked very closely with the local authority in the early years because we went through at least three different phases of building,” he explained.

“Before, when you came to the school it looked like it wasn't cared for. There were murals on the wall with things from 90s TV shows like the Teletubbies and I'm sure they were lovely at the time, but it wasn't a 2020 place of learning.

“We have individual year group classes now and we have hugely developed the site. We have a huge school field with an artificial pitch outside and we have developed a huge forest school.

“After that, it was for us to convince the community they could trust us with their children.

“It has been a difficult process, but year after year we have improved and you can see that in the Ofsted report.”

Head of School Anthea McLevy said: “I’m proud of everyone's achievements, it is very much a team effort.

“The key thing we looked at was making sure the curriculum supports the individual children's needs and that we are meeting those needs in appropriate ways, whether that is in forest school or in the classroom.”

It is hoped the achievements will not stop there with bosses saying they will aim for “outstanding” in future inspections.