A NEW headteacher has been appointed to lead a failing Basingstoke secondary school which was said to be in a “state of serious decline”.

Andrew Hatherley will take over the headship at Coppice Spring Academy in January 2023 and will spend the autumn term “transitioning into the role”.

Coppice Spring Academy, a school for pupils with social, emotional and mental health difficulties, in Pack Lane, was graded as ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted in March this year when inspectors found pupils were “beyond control” and staff feared being hurt.

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Ofsted said pupils were provided with an “unacceptably poor education”.

Following the Ofsted inspection, the regional director (RD) from the Department for Education (DfE) issued a ‘termination warning notice’ to Catch-22 Multi Academies Trust regarding Coppice Spring, and later decided to remove the school from the trust.

As exclusively reported by the Gazette, Catch-22 was then asked to hand over its remaining six academy schools, including two others in Basingstoke, to another provider following a string of poor Ofsted inspections, meaning it will no longer operate as a provider of academies.

See also: Failing academy trust handing over three Basingstoke schools to another provider following decline

Catch-22 said Mr Hatherley, who was vice principal at The Portsmouth Academy – part of The Thinking Schools Academies Trust – will focus on “driving forward the school’s improvement plan such that our students continue to be provided with both high-quality education and specialised support”.

A spokesperson for Catch-22 added: “Following a thorough recruitment process, we are excited to welcome our new headteacher, Andrew Hatherley, into the Coppice Spring community.”

Coppice Spring is currently led by interim headteacher Paul Mundy-Castle.

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It is understood that Coppice Spring has received a monitoring visit from Ofsted since its previous inspection, the results of which are yet to be published.