'Inadequate' school to be transferred to new trust

A secondary school rated as inadequate in a recent inspection is set to be transferred to a new trust.

Oakbank Secondary Free School in Reading, managed by Anthem School Trust, was given the lowest possible rating by Ofsted in all four key areas following an inspection in November last year.

In July, parents at the school complained that children were being "left behind" because of a high turnover of staff.

The Anthem Schools Trust, said the the school's "best interests" would be served by a new trust which could "offer support at a more local level".

In November the school was deemed to be inadequate by inspectors in all four key areas: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership.

The Anthem School Trust was criticised in the report for having "not been successful in mitigating the negative impact of turbulence in staff".

The inspection report said the "turbulence in leadership" and also "destabilised" the school community.

In a statement, Anthem Schools Trust said it had begun the process of transferring it to another trust which would "offer more support at a local level".

It said until then, it would be working closely with Greenshaw Learning Trust to "continue its improvement journey".

Anthem Schools Trust's chief executive, Mohsen Ojja, said the decision was made "with the school's students first and foremost in our minds."

He added a final decision about which multi-academy trust would take over the school would be made in March.

Anthem Schools Trust currently runs five secondary schools and 11 primary schools, including Oakbank.

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