THREE special schools are considering leaving county control to form a single academy trust.

The idea is being discussed by Fitzwaryn School in Wantage, Springfield School in Witney and Kingfisher School in Abingdon, which between them teach 225 children with severe learning difficulties.

The Department for Education approached the schools last year, encouraging them to become academies. The three are among 30 Oxfordshire schools now looking to convert.

Springfield’s chairman of governors, Jessica Patton, said: “We don’t have a timetable, and we’ve told parents that during this year we will look at academy status, but there will be no decision yet.”

Chairman of Kingfisher School’s governors Barry Taylor added: “We are looking into the implications at the moment.”

A new council paper outlines the increasing rate at which schools are leaving authority control.

Some 30 schools across Oxfordshire could become academies in the near future, letting them buy in services and decide curriculum and admissions.

They include top-performing schools and some whose results the Government wants to boost.

County Hall will commission a report outlining how groups of schools could link up to form multi-academy trusts, amid fears smaller primaries will be left behind.

The councillor responsible for school improvement, Melinda Tilley, said: “They will all have to go down this route, and we want to help them find their feet.

“What will come out is clusters of five or six primary schools under umbrella trusts.

“It is not just the rural ones. In Blackbird Leys, for example, there are a few schools that need help, but we do not want outside sponsors to pick them off one-by-one.

“We want a Blackird Leys-wide solution.”

For the first time, Oxfordshire County Council admitted it has failed to help many schools improve. The cabinet paper says: “We need to accept the historic under-performance of parts of the education sector in the county suggests the council does not always have the capability to deliver improvement. In some cases, our schools have not had the level of support needed.”

An advisory board, likely to contain top education experts, university and Church of England representatives, will oversee the transition in coming years.