Staff at a primary school which achieved its first ever "good" Ofsted rating after 30 years, say "passion, teamwork and technology" is the key to pupil greatness.

After an inspection late last year, Richmond Academy in Sheerness, received its high rating from the education watchdog after being turned around by the Stour Academy Trust.

Helen Evemy has been head teacher there for six years – the longest-serving the school has had.

She explained that the latest grading was "the best thing for the children."

She said: "It feels amazing to have this Ofsted report.

"It's been a long journey, but with lots and lots of positives along the way.

"And to get that grading in November was just the best thing for the school, the community, the staff and the children, which is obviously what we're here for."

Rachael Howell, chief executive officer of the Stour Academy Trust, agreed, saying staff at the school always knew it was good despite it being labelled as the county’s eighth most deprived school.

She said: "Richmond is a brilliant school.

"It's such a positive community where great things have been happening over the past five years in terms of its development, but we knew it was good from the start.

"Our staff, our pupils and our families hopefully thought it was good as well, but to get Ofsted to recognise it now, to undo the previous negative reputation the school had is just wonderful news for everybody.

"What Helen, myself and the whole organisation really wanted for Richmond was a different outcome.

"That outcome was to be a good school where children made good progress and had a really great time learning."

In a glowing report from Ofsted, the primary school was praised by inspectors for its unfaltering efforts of leadership, the high-quality curriculum, the behaviour of pupils and the children’s well-being.

Helen explained that changing the school's learning methods to incorporate technology was another big turning point for the trust.

The academy spent £30,000 to kit out KS2 pupils with iPads.

She said: "After the pandemic, technology enabled us to take the best parts of our remote learning policy into the school.

"We linked up with Microsoft and as we like to set ambitious goals for ourselves one of those early goals was to become a Microsoft showcase school – we did exactly that!"

There are only a few hundred Microsoft Showcase schools worldwide.

Being recognised by the software giant means Richmond is able to use the company's Education Transformation Framework to drive a culture of learning, innovation and continuous improvement.

Helen added: "It felt like a huge journey to get linked up with Microsoft and maybe an unachievable goal because it's pretty hard to achieve, but we did it."

Rachael believes teamwork and dedication are what make a "good" school.

She said: "I think stability is a really key part, as is trust, and building that team of young people and staff so you're all on the shared journey.

"Not only one person can do it. In any school, I think you need a team behind you.

"That relentless drive and passion are really key because you have to believe that you're going to do it and that you're making the right choices."