A primary school hopes a ‘good’ rating from education watchdog Ofsted will save it from being ‘forced’ to become an academy.

The Government threatened to take William Torbitt Primary School away from the control of Redbridge Council and turn it into an academy after it received Ofsted’s lowest ‘inadequate’ rating in September, following an inspection in June.

Academies are funded directly by central government and not run by the local authority – and the Redbridge community and staff from other schools in the borough rallied to oppose the school’s academisation.

Following another inspection by Ofsted on January 9, the school was rated ‘good’ – the second highest rating – in a report published on February 6.

Redbridge Council wrote to the Government in January to oppose the plans to academise the primary school.

Staff, governors and councillors now hope the Government will revoke its plans and leave the school, in Eastern Avenue, Newbury Park, in council control.

In its report, Ofsted praised the leadership of interim head teacher Clare Pike, deputy head teacher Pavnjit Kettory and described the governing body as “proactive” and “well informed”.

Inspectors found the school to be a “safe space where children thrive in a positive, nurturing environment”.

Mrs Pike said: “We are thrilled that inspectors have recognised the significant improvements that we have made. We had a clear vision of where the school needed to be and by introducing a whole new behaviour system, changing the learning environment and having a fantastic team of dedicated teachers, this was made possible.”

Rajesh Zala, chairman of governors, said: “We always believed William Torbitt could make the changes needed without being converted into an academy and we now hope the Government will reconsider their plans after the recent inspection.

“Our team of consultant leaders and assistant head teachers have proved that staff have the capacity to improve in all the areas identified in an inspection report only published in September.

“Governors have the skills to hold leaders to account for further improvement and we are confident in the ongoing support of Redbridge Council.”

Cllr Elaine Norman, cabinet member for children and young people, said: “This is a fantastic result for the school, the students, the teachers and the council. The report highlights the excellent progress by the school since the June 2018 inspection, thanks to peer support from other schools and teachers and the dedicated work of the council’s schools improvement team.

“It also demonstrates that we have the capacity to rapidly improve a school through swift action. The council hopes that the Regional Schools Commissioner and ministers will now consider the report carefully and will decide that forced academisation is definitely not needed now to turn this school around.”

A decision as to whether or not the planned academisation will go ahead is yet to be reached.