ONE of the highest performing state schools in the country is linking up with South Gloucestershire and Stroud College in a bid to up standards at a school hit by controversy.
Co-educational grammar school, Pate's in Cheltenham will act as school improvement partner for the SGS Academy Trust which will run The Forest Academy in Cinderford.
The newly formed SGS Academy Trust will formally take over sponsorship of The Forest Academy on March 1 after it emerged that there was a risk the school would close if a new sponsor wasn't found.
Forest Academy School was formerly the E-Act Academy and before that Heywood School. The latest name change came after previous sponsor E-Act pulled out.
Ofsted raised serious concerns about the performance of some E-Act academies, funded directly from central government and run by the not-for-profit company.
Recognised by Ofsted as Outstanding in 2013, Pate's will undertake regular monitoring visits to all schools in the trust, maintaining a programme of raising performance expectations and providing practical guidance and coaching for teaching staff and managers.
The school is delivering the support as part of its work as a teaching school. The Odyssey Teaching School Alliance includes a number of partner organisations in the area and is working with local schools to improve outcomes.
Kevin Hamblin, principal of SGS and CEO of the newly formed SGS Academy Trust, said: "It is common for schools to work with each other to constructively challenge the performance of another school. We have gone to one of the best schools in the country to act as our school improvement partner as it sets out our ambition to become outstanding.
"Pate's is an outstanding school and they will provide rigour to the development and implementation of all our quality procedures. This will give parents and pupils the confidence that the approach to teaching and learning at all schools within our trust, reflects the best practices of a school such as Pate's Grammar."
