The future of a historic school embroiled in a anti-academy campaign is set to be formally signed off next week.

United Learning Trust is set to be rubber stamped as the new sponsor of the 300-year-old John Roan school, ending months of speculation from teachers and parents.

The school was hit by a damning Ofsted report last year, which under government legislation means it is turned over to an academy chain, as opposed to the local council running it.

The John Roan has been caught up in months of strikes and protests as a campaign run by parents, campaigners and teachers, battled academisation.

Councillors, many of whom disagree with academisation, will formally sign off on the handover at a cabinet meeting next week.

A new council report explains: “The local authority has a duty to facilitate the conversion of the school into an academy when an academy order has been imposed by the Secretary of State.

“Agreement of cabinet is required to enable officers to take necessary steps to facilitate the conversion of TJR to Academy status as required by law, following the receipt of an academy order in this respect.

“At this stage, there are no other viable options other than to facilitate the processes leading up to TJR conversion by the chosen date.”

The academisation process includes transferring staff to UST as well as leasing the school’s Westcombe Park Road site.

United Learning will take over the school from September at the earliest, according to council documents.

Last month, parents and teachers told the LDR service they were worried about United Learning moving in.

Teacher and union rep Kirstie Paton told the LDR service at a protest in May: “This is the last thing teachers want to be doing.

“We feel compelled because we are not being listened to as a community. Our biggest anxiety about academisation is the impact on our students. We’ve studied and there is no evidence to suggest the school improves by joining a multi-academy trust.

“We recently had a monitoring visit and the inspector said we are making steady progress. There’s still room for improvement, but they said our leadership can take the school forward, why would you want to mess that up?”

Hundreds of people have backed letters and petitions against the academisation process at the school.

Meanwhile, the school has lost nearly a fortnight of days to strike action this year, to the frustration of some.

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Campaigners say money spent on chief executives could be better spent on staffing the school, which Ofsted recently admitted had made progress in some areas.

Following the original announcement, a spokesman for United Learning said: “We are very pleased to have been chosen as the sponsor for The John Roan School and we are grateful to the number of staff and parents who have already been in touch to welcome our involvement in the school after a turbulent 18 months for everyone there.

“Whilst we are not responsible for the how and why of The John Roan School becoming an academy, we are now responsible for its future and we look forward to beginning work with the leadership team in planning the year ahead.

“Our focus will be entirely on education, the good of the young people and the future success of the school”.