THE country’s biggest academy sponsor is still in the frame for Oxford School despite being told not to begin new schemes until its existing academies improve.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families has asked the United Learning Trust, ULT, to focus on the academies it currently runs while developing two projects already in the pipeline — including a scheme to shut Oxford School and open the county’s first academy for four to 19 year olds.
ULT also runs North Oxfordshire Academy in Banbury.
In a letter to Oxfordshire County Council, schools minister Vernon Coake said ULT was being asked to concentrate on improving its current academies.
He said schools secretary of state Ed Balls was still considering the expression of interest for the proposal but the department had not changed its views on the suitability of ULT as a sponsor.
But Anna Thorne, who has two children in Year Seven at Oxford School, said: “How can they say ULT is not suitable for future academies but they are suitable for Oxford?”
A ULT spokesman said it was working hard on the Oxford scheme.
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