Prospects Academy Trust offloads final Gloucestershire schools

An academy schools sponsor, which announced last year it was to fold, has offloaded its remaining two schools.

Prospects Academies Trust had six schools at its peak; two in Gloucestershire, three in Devon and one in East Sussex.

The trust's website says it is now "being wound up" after transferring the Dean Academy and Gloucester Academy to new sponsors on 1 March.

It is the first academy chain in the country to fold.

A statement on the trust website, external, said board members "reluctantly" came to the decision to find new sponsors for its six academies as the trust "in its current form, was not viable".

"The trustees were determined to ensure that the education of the students at the academies should not be interrupted and believe that this objective has been achieved," added a spokesperson.

Two Wiltshire sponsors have taken on the two schools in the neighbouring county, with Gloucester Academy now in the hands of The White Horse Federation and the Malmesbury Trust taking over The Dean Academy in Lydney.