It has taken more than 20 years but one town secondary school has finally achieved a ‘good’ Ofsted rating.

Sittingbourne Community College has always managed to keep its head just above water, scraping by with a ‘satisfactory’ grade.

But it seems the achievement of students and the quality of teaching have transformed beyond recognition since it was taken under the wing of The Swale Academies’ Trust in January 2012.

The changes have been implemented by trust principal Jon Whitcombe, who is praised by the inspectors in the report for restructuring the leadership team and significantly raising expectations.

As a result, the quality of teaching has improved ‘substantially’ and in turn the achievements of students has been raised.

It says: “The head teacher and senior leaders have been successful in raising standards of teaching by synchronising performance management with the monitoring and evaluation of the work of the school and the salary progression of teachers, linked to students’ progress.”

Mr Whitcombe says he is delighted with the outcome.

He said: “The school now has a consistency of practice and parents should feel highly confident that their children are receiving an excellent well-rounded education which focuses first and foremost upon securing excellent standards in English and maths.

“The fact that all lessons seen in English and maths were at least good with most being outstanding is testament to the excellent improvements.

“I am deeply appreciative of all of the hard work and support of staff, students and parents in securing this excellent validation of the remarkable improvements at the college.

“Clearly, there is still much that needs to be done if we are to become an outstanding provider.

“We need to continue to raise achievement, develop students’ independent learning skills, raise students’ attendance levels and strengthen our links with parents and carers.

“The task of the college is to achieve this.”

To improve further it needs to make sure achievement is consistently good or better across all subject areas and increase its rates of attendance. A copy of the report is due to be posted to parents this week. The number of students on the school roll is 1,330, aged between 11 and 18.

To see the report in full, visit www.ofsted.gov.uk