The Oxford Academy has vowed to run a course for six pupils who were turned away from the school because of a lack of a teacher.

The former Peers School pupils arrived at the academy on Monday expecting to continue with their national diploma in health and social care.

The teenagers studied the first year of their course in Year 12 at Peers and claimed they had been told the course would continue, despite the Littlemore school’s transformation into Oxford’s first academy school.

But when they arrived at the Sandy Lane West school to start Year 13, they were turned away and told the course was not running.

Rebecca Goodwin, 18, from Nettlebed Mead, Greater Leys, said she and her schoolfriends were left angry and confused about what they could do to complete their qualification.

She said: "It has been a really stressful time.

“I was angry — they should have let us know before."

A spokesman for the academy said it had not expected any students to continue the course.

The spokesman said staff at Peers School had spoken to all the students at the end of the summer term to tell them they were not guaranteed a place on the course and they should look elsewhere to complete their qualification.

However, the academy released a statement today announcing that a teacher had now been found and the course would begin on Monday.