A school for pupils who have been excluded looks set to be converted to an academy - later this year.

Oakfield Lodge School, Warmingham Road, Crewe, is a 60-place pupil referral unit and is currently a local authority maintained school.

Cheshire East's children and families committee voted unanimously on Monday to support the conversion to academy status and for the school to join the Manor Hall Academy Trust - starting this September.

The 60-place pupil referral unit, Warmingham Road, will become an academy in September (Google).

Director of education Jacky Forster told the meeting: "This is a school that supports some of our most vulnerable children who are excluded from school and a number of these children will be open to social care."

Oakfield Lodge was located in a range of temporary buildings until December 2019, when it moved into a new purpose-built accommodation on Warmingham Road.

The Manor Hall Academy Trust it will be joining already incorporates 12 schools. It is a specialist trust for schools supporting pupils with social, emotional, and mental health needs.

What is an academy?

An academy school in England is a state-funded school.

It is directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local authority control (Cheshire East Council).

Oakfield Lodge was judged inadequate by Ofsted in January 2014.

The school has made improvements and it currently still requires improvement.

Mrs Forster told the committee current headteacher Gemma Bailey 'has definitely driven along a lot of recent improvements, to the position where we are very confident about the arrangements and provision available for that school'.

The Oakfield Lodge logo. The school has made improvements and currently still requires improvement (Oakfield Lodge).

She added: "As officers we do believe that this is the right trust for them to join. We believe this is the right fit."

Middlewich councillor Carol Bulman (Lab), a former teacher who has taught in a pupil referral unit, said this is a good news story.

"These children need specialist help. They need one to one in many cases, it's their last chance in many cases," she said.

She said the school had been judged inadequate at a time of austerity and underfunding.

"I'm sure there were people in there struggling hard to do really good work, but the buildings matter," said Cllr Bulman. "The funding matters.

"2018 it's improved somewhat, but it still requires to improve further.

"2021 and we're getting this lovely new building and the senior leadership is deemed to be very good.

"It's had support from the local authority, it's joining a specialist trust and everything's looking much, much better for these kids.

"I'm especially pleased that they're getting this purpose built lovely building because that will help enormously."

Cllr Carol Bulman, Middlewich, Labour (Cheshire East Council).

Oakfield Lodge currently shares the site with a separate provider which supports vulnerable primary aged pupils.

That element of the site will be retained by the council.

READ MORE: New tiny forest planted in Crewe and checked out by local schoolchildren.

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(Ryan Parker and Belinda Ryan)