Pent Valley College head teacher Mario Citro has left the school after the appointment of new executive head Jon Whitcombe.

As the Folkestone & Hythe Express exclusively revealed last week, Kent County Council and the school’s governors decided to bring in Mr Whitcombe after county education chiefs inspected the school in December to find areas to improve after a poor set of exam results in the summer.

However Mr Citro – who has been at the school for nine years – and his two deputy heads Mick Kelly and Giles Osborne have all left the school after the Easter holidays.

Discussions between KCC officials and governors after December’s inspection led to the appointment of Mr Whitcombe, who is one of the county’s go-to head teachers to help struggling schools.

He began his new role, which will see him provide strategic direction and leadership to the school, when the summer term started on Monday.

In a letter to parents on his first day he expressed his disappointment that Mr Citro, Mr Kelly and Mr Osborne would not be returning “despite a significant amount of effort on my part and that of others to encourage them to stay”.

He added: “I had hoped that they would have at least stayed until the end of the school year to see through the current Year 11 and sixth form students.

“Sadly, neither myself or governors were able to persuade them to remain. While this is disappointing news we need to move forward and secure better outcomes for the students in the future despite their absence.”

Mr Whitcombe will work above new head teacher Phil Leyland who will take on the day to day running of the school.

Mr Whitcombe added he expected they would be at the school for the “foreseeable future” meanwhile he said he intends to “be in Pent Valley for the majority of the working week between now and the end of the summer term and in all likelihood beyond that”.

He outlined a three-point plan for the opening weeks which includes finding out more about the school through discussions with pupils and staff, assess the quality of teaching and pupil progress and also outlining a clear and “non-negotiable” set of behaviour expectations.