Parents who successfully campaigned to stop a 'failing' south-east primary school from being turned into an academy hope their hard work can inspire other schools in a similar situation.

Following considerable efforts by teachers and parents, the Department of Education (DfE) has announced that Snaresbrook Primary School had made enough improvement to stop the process that threatened to force it out of local authority control.

Back in July, the school was rated inadequate in all categories by an Ofsted report, but now it has the fourth best results for the age group in the entire borough.

Campaigners did not believe that automatically turning the school into an academy would improve matters and those who backed the current school leadership were set to deliver a petition signed by over 2,500 people to Downing Street before the DfE announcement.

Campaigner Paul Daintry told the East London and West Essex Guardian Series: "We have a lot of praise for them for pushing through and recognising the progress the school has made, instead of bulldozing through with academy status which they could easily have done, but instead they backed down."

"I hope it proves to Michael Gove and the DfE that they need to be listening to parents and teachers and will make them see they need to give schools like us a chance."

Fellow campaigner Claudia Martin said the DfE's decision did come as a shock, but now teaching staff and the school can get on with helping pupils without the shadow of changing status hanging over them.

If you are a teacher or somebody looking for a teaching job in London or the south-east, let us know your views on the academy status. Should the DfE be more open to allowing schools and local authorities to change their own fortunes around? If you have been through the switch to an academy while working in a classroom, have you noticed any improvements?