An isolated secondary school that has never been rated ‘good’ or better by Ofsted has a new academy trust lined up.
Department for Education southeast regional director Dame Kate Dethridge plans to re-broker Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey into the Leigh Academies Trust.
The academy, which is the only secondary school on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, is the first to be given up by Oasis Community Learning, one of England’s largest trusts, in its almost two-decade history.
Inspectors warned last year the school had seen “too many fresh starts” as it slid into special measures.
They found more than half of pupils were not attending regularly, while behaviour was “often dangerous”, and the trust did “too little” to tackle racist, sexist and homophobic language.
Leigh and the DfE confirmed in a joint statement that the trust will now begin “diligence to undertake a full assessment of the needs of the academy”.
“If content to proceed, Leigh will submit a detailed plan for the academy’s future to the department for consideration, ahead of a final decision being made by the regional director and the Leigh board on the transfer of the academy.”
The school had been rated ‘requires improvement’ three times since Oasis took it on in 2009, before it was slapped with an ‘inadequate’ grade.
An Oasis spokesperson stressed “before a final decision of a transfer is made, the priority of our dedicated and hardworking staff will remain the young people and wider academy community we serve and supporting our students to achieve their best”.
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