by Graham Tutthillgtutthill@thekmgroup.co.uk

Plans are being put forward to turn a Dover school - which was placed into special measures by Ofsted inspectors - into a sponsored academy.

St Edmund's Catholic School was said to be "inadequate" in many respects when the inspectors visited the school in January, just weeks after executive headteacher Chris Atkin resigned.

A new management team from St George's C of E Foundation School in Broadstairs was brought in to run the school.

But this evening, the Mercury has learned that there are proposals to make the school a Catholic-sponsored academy, and a consultation process is to be launched.

The school is currently run jointly by the Catholic Diocese of Southwark and Kent County Council. If it becomes an academy, it will be taken out of KCC control, and run entirely by the Catholic Diocese.

In their report, which was published two weeks ago, inspectors said the overall effectiveness of the school, pupils' achievement, the quality of teaching and the leadership and management were all inadequate, and that the behaviour and safety of pupils required improvement.

"This is a school that requires special measures," said lead inspector Robert Ellis.

Among the targets which the school was set was the eradication of inadequate teaching and the promotion of high professional standards so that all teaching is good or better by January 2014.

Pupils were said to be behaving better since the new interim leadership team had raised expectations of how they should behave.

Governors were said to have failed to address weaknesses identified by the previous inspection, and they were criticised for relying too much on information provided by the school's leaders.