A NOTTS academy has had to back out of sponsoring Eastwood Comprehensive School – because it isn't considered good enough by the Government.
Rushcliffe School was set to oversee the transformation of Eastwood School into an academy.
But they have been told they aren't allowed – so Redhill Academy, in Arnold, is now set to step into the breach.
Rushcliffe head teacher Phil Crompton and senior staff have been working closely with Eastwood since late last year to drive up standards.
It is one of a number of increasingly-popular partnerships between a successful school and one which is judged to be struggling.
It had been expected that Rushcliffe would oversee the transformation of Eastwood into an academy, but these hopes have now been dashed, because Rushcliffe was only rated as "good" and not "outstanding" by Ofsted.
The Department for Education has contacted them to let them know only academies rated "outstanding" can act as sponsors of others.
Redhill Academy is rated as "outstanding".
A letter to parents from David Hill, chairman of governors at Eastwood Comprehensive, said: "Due to a change in Government procedures Rushcliffe School was unable to sponsor us. This was disappointing, but we are delighted that Redhill is keen to work with us.
"I think it is important to add that Mr Crompton and his team from Rushcliffe were totally committed to Eastwood and were sad that the relationship would be unable to continue beyond August of this year."
Mr Hill added that parents at Eastwood would have the chance to meet Redhill principal Andrew Burns.
He added: "His governors will need to finalise the agreement before anything can be certain, but we are optimistic that things will go well."
Eastwood Comprehensive is currently in the "requires improvement" Ofsted category. More than half of pupils (58 per cent) failed to get the benchmark of five GCSE grades between A* and C in 2012.
Rushcliffe, which became an academy last year, though kept its old name, offered its help to oversee improvement. Last year, 84 per cent of pupils there gained the benchmark of five high GCSE passes.
Rushcliffe head teacher Mr Crompton said: "Rushcliffe School has been supporting Eastwood Comprehensive School since November last year. Both sets of governors had hoped this would mean that Rushcliffe would be able to sponsor Eastwood as an academy. Unfortunately this cannot now happen due to some late confusion over government policy."
No one from Redhill Academy was available for comment.
