A SOLIHULL primary school is starting its new year having converted to an academy.
Lady Katherine Leveson Primary School, in Fen End, joined the Birmingham Diocese Multi Academy Trust as a new entity.
This week (September 1) the Department for Education approved the schools bid for academy status.
The move will see it funded by the DfE through the BDMAT organisation.
Its academy approval comes after an Ofsted inspection last year which found the school ‘requires improvement.’
Inspectors said pupils were sometimes given ‘unsuitable activities’ which did not support their learning, special needs pupils did not have a well adapted curriculum, and the teaching of reading was not ‘prioritised.’
Ofsted added the new status gives the school reset on its rating. “Upon conversion to academy status the existing school closes and a new school opens in
its place. Although little may have changed, the academy converter is a new legal entity,” the ombudsman stated.