A school head says he was shocked when pole dancing lessons being offered to mums of pupils at his school made national newspaper headlines.

The out-of-hours fitness class is held in a dance studio at Woodlands primary school, Gillingham.

It is run by a firm called Sensual Ladies.

The lessons featured on the BBC TV programme Inside Out on Wedneday and stories about the pole dancing sessions appeared in the national media the following day.

Head teacher Nick Fiddaman says he can’t see what all the fuss is about.

He said: "I was a little bit shocked by the media attention because when the BBC came here they were going to show all the things we do in the evenings. We do 60 to 70 different classes for parents and adults in the community.They just focused on the pole dancing.

"It is one of many fitness classes we run at the school. We have lots of people, wanting to do it, lots of very nice people. I don’t see the problem, it’s on 7pm to 8pm at night, in private rooms so it was a surprise that the BBC made such a big thing about it."

Some of the other classes offered by the school include street jazz, sports therapy, beauty therapy, kickboxing, tap dancing, ballroom dancing, ballet lessons and yoga lessons.

All the money raised from the activities is re-invested in to the school.

Mr Fiddaman said: "We run these classes because schools belong to the community. We believe that making the school the focal point of the community and providing lots of things for people to do raises the communities' self-esteem.

"We obviously charge people for the use of the facilities and we re-invest that money in to the school or to put on new things or subsidies things that don’t make any money but are valuable.

"Schools should be places where everyone is welcome."