A primary school is welcoming twice as many children to the classroom after the official opening of a new building.

Riverside Primary School in St Edmund’s Way, Rainham, welcomed parents, the mayor and mayoress of Medway Cllrs Steve and Josie Isles, councillors and school governors to the new building in the school grounds.

It is now used by the nursery and reception classes.

Head teacher Kim Wilmer said: “This is a really exciting time for us.

“A lot of people want to come to our school and it is expanding.

“We now have two forms of entry in reception and it’s growing year on year.

“I’m proud to be a head teacher here and we have a very supportive community around us.”

Vicki Atkinson, chairman of the parent teacher association, has one daughter at the school, Maddie, and Kacie who finished there in July.

She said: “It looks amazing. We’ve seen it since there was nothing here except a path and a sensory garden that wasn’t really used.

“The children have been involved with the building the whole way through.

“The Year 6 pupils were the first to get a tour and some of their writing work was about what they want to see.

“Seeing the change from a school that didn’t have the best reputation to being oversubscribed is a testament to the work they have all done here. It’s lovely.”

Chairman of governors Tim Scott was equally pleased with the finished product.

He said: “It’s even better than I imagined. I didn’t think it would be so big.

“The school is growing but we want to make sure we have the same ideals.

“Even with the expansion we still have the same feel to the school that made me want to send my children here.”

The new building was made possible thanks to a large investment from Medway Council.

Around £1.2million was put into the project, which was completed in time for the new term, and is made of several modular buildings.

Cllr Martin Potter (Con) is a former pupil at Riverside and now cabinet member for educational attainment and improvement. He said: “It’s nice to come back and see the school to go from strength to strength under Mrs Wilmer’s leadership.

“The council has invested over £1million to provide 210 spaces at the school.

“We’ve created an extra 3,000 school places since 2013 and we are investing £45 million to achieve that over five years.

“Riverside is in high demand and is on quite a large site and the school hasn’t lost any playground space from the build which is why Riverside was the perfect place for a new build.

“We (the council) were joint first nationally for providing additional school places that are good or outstanding.”