ONE step through the door of Queen’s Park Academy is all it takes to see how much it has changed.

Smart, well-behaved pupils queue up to hold doors open for visitors while neatly adjusting the ties on their business-like new uniforms.

And all appear keen to hurry off to lessons where achievement has gone through the roof in the last 18 months.

In 2011 the former Queen’s Park Junior School was placed in special measures because it was providing an inadequate education.

Worried parents of pupils at the successful neighbouring Queen’s Park Infants School frantically searched for junior places elsewhere.

They were worried about standards of behaviour and attainment at the East Way junior school.

The 2011 Ofsted inspection provided the push needed to make drastic changes at the school.

And the appointment of Brian Hooper as executive head proved to be the turning point for the school, which is now attracting pupils from within and outside its catchment area.

Mr Hooper was already head of the successful and challenging Bicknell School, now the Tregonwell Academy, for children with behavioural, social and emotional difficulties. Together the two schools now form the Tregonwell Trust.

He now spends three days a week at Queen’s Park, where head of school Alexandra Prout holds the fort.

Mrs Prout was deputy head when the school was seen as failing and she said the changes had been remarkable.

“The improvement was rapid” she said. “Within less than a year we had a new report from Ofsted which rated us as good with outstanding features.

“We are now heading towards an overall rating of outstanding.”

There are currently around 400 pupils between the ages of seven and 11 at the school.

This September will see four new forms of entry and take numbers to around 440.

Mr Hooper said he is particularly proud that behaviour at the school has already been rated as outstanding.

And results at Key Stage 2 last year proved that all the hard work has been worth it. Figures released in December revealed 82 per cent of students had gained the benchmark level 4 in both maths and English compared with 53 per cent the previous year.