GOVERNORS of a Shipley primary school say they have been “badly led down” by an academy trust that recently pulled out from running the school.

High Crags Academy was one of three Bradford schools that was, until September, run by the Wakefield City Academy Trust.

But at the start of term the trust dramatically pulled out of these, and its other 18 schools. The Secretary of State for education has admitted the trust was "defeated" by challenges facing the schools.

Governors at High Crags have now called for the Department for Education to make sure the school’s finances are protected from WCAT ‘s collapse.

Earlier this month it was announced that the Tauheedul Education Trust was the new preferred sponsor for the three Bradford district schools.

In the past few weeks, former WCAT schools have raised concerns with the government over how the changes may hit their finances.

High Crags was forced to join the trust in 2016, after it was put in special measures in 2015 following a highly critical Ofsted inspection.

Baildon Councillor Mike Pollard, one of the governors at High Crags, said: “The rush to ‘academise’ everything in sight appears to have created a situation where the due diligence we might expect, from the Government department responsible for the direct funding of academy trusts, has been sadly lacking.

"I am a Conservative and am deeply concerned that my Government is attracting reputational damage to one of its flagship programmes.”

And Chair of Governors Eric Fairchild said: “High Crags has been badly let down. We are asking the DfE to protect our budget surplus from being used to bail out this failed Trust.”

Secretary of State for Education Justine Greening has spoken recently on the issue, saying: “We make no apology for stepping in to improve these schools and what WCAT themselves were doing were trying to lift up schools that were not doing a good enough job.

"The trust itself has been defeated by those challenges, which is why we’re now stepping in.”