Kent County Council has been forced to bring in a new executive head to improve Folkestone’s Pent Valley College.

Following a set of poor GCSE results last summer, KCC education bosses inspected the Surrenden Road school in the autumn to find areas it can improve, the Folkestone & Hythe Express can reveal.

Jon Whitcombe, who is one of the county’s ‘superheads’ brought in to turn around failing schools, has been appointed executive head teacher for the "foreseeable future" and starts when the summer term begins next week.

Pupils and staff are currently out of the school on their Easter holidays and the summer term resumes on Monday.

It is unclear how Mr Whitcombe’s arrival will impact on current head teacher Mario Citro’s position.

Mr Whitcombe was previously brought in to drag the North School in Ashford out of special measures in March 2014 following a dismal Ofsted inspection the previous month.

He was also in charge of the Chaucer School in Canterbury when it closed despite claiming the school was starting to improve.

He is also executive principal of the Swale Academies Trust which runs five schools in the Sittingbourne area, one in Maidstone and another in Meopham.

Chairman of governors Ian Parker said: “Pent Valley was judged good by Ofsted in 2013 and we are confident that we can retain this position with assistance from KCC and under the leadership of Mr Whitcombe.

"Indeed, we had already set in motion a number of strategies and monitoring systems to ensure continuing improvements in teaching, learning and progress, which will impact positively on the school’s GCSE and post-16 results later this year.”

Pent Valley was rated as ‘good’ by Ofsted when the education watchdog last inspected the school two years ago.

That inspection result saw an improvement on the ‘satisfactory’ rating it was given in the previous inspection before that.

Inspectors praised the school when they visited in January 2013 saying pupils “make good progress and achieve well”.

They noted that pupils’ progress accelerates as they move through the school and that “teaching in most subjects, including English, mathematics and science, is good”.

The leadership of the school was also praised by inspectors at the time with them noting: “The head teacher and members of the governing body have a clear vision for the direction of the school.

“They have a well defined and effective strategy to raise standards of teaching and achievement to the very highest levels.”