DISCUSSIONS have taken place to create Oxford’s first super-academy for four- to 18-year-olds, the Oxford Mail can reveal.

The county council is looking to create an “all-through” academy in a bid to raise academic standards in the city.

Parents and governors at St Christopher’s Primary School, in Temple Road, Cowley believe it is being lined up for a merger with Oxford School, in Glanville Road.

The primary school was placed in special measures by Ofsted inspectors in May, but parents think merging it with a secondary school is not the way forward.

School governors Jayne Harrison and Joel Hawkins issued a warning letter to parents after a behind closed doors meeting last week.

They suggested St Christopher’s would close next year and reopen in September 2010 under the umbrella of a proposed academy.

The letter also claimed pupils would move to the academy site in 2012, although the council stressed last night that was only one option.

Mrs Harrison said: “If they think because it’s a failing school they can make us part of their experiment we object to that.

“It is obviously going through a difficult time at the moment, but we think it has got the potential to be a good school and want to support it.

“We want to give a very clear message that an academy is not what the parents at St Christopher’s want.”

Her views were echoed by parent Mark Chandler, 40, whose two children, George, 11 and Grace, seven, attend the school, said: “I’m outraged. Parents here are stunned.

“I don’t think private sponsors have the credentials, the knowledge and the understanding of what a school is.

Mr Chandler, a teacher at Mary Hare school for the deaf in Newbury, who lives in Glanville Road, added: “Big isn’t always beautiful and better.

“I do feel older children, whether they are separated or not, will have a detrimental effect on primary school children’s attitudes and manners and how they conduct themselves.

“If it is down to getting money from the Government, this is the wrong way of going about it.”

Earlier this year the Oxford Mail revealed that the council was in talks to close down Oxford School and reopen it as the city’s second academy, following the pattern of Peers School in Littlemore.

It means the school will manage its own budget and look for private funding.

St Christopher’s received the lowest grade in its latest Ofsted inspection, although governors believe its next set of Sats results will show an improvement in academic standards.

Council spokesman Paul Smith said: “St Christopher’s School is to be included in the expression of interest being prepared by the potential sponsors for submission to the Government.

“That does not mean that it is certain that being part of an all through age academy will be the chosen way forward for this school. There has been no submission as yet.”

Council cabinet member for schools improvement Michael Waine said: “If we did follow through that aspiration for the proposed academy that would offer a way of creating new places and extra capacity, but that has been looked at long before St Christopher’s went into special measures.

“We do need in that part of East Oxford a school that is able to offer exemplary practice as far as raising achievement, aspiration and expectation are concerned.”

cwalker@oxfordmail.co.uk