A charity has been taken on as the main sponsor at the Isle of Sheppey Academy (IOSA).

For the past four years, the school has been under Dulwich College and although it is staying on-board, Oasis Community Learning (OCL) will now lead the way.

It is part of Oasis, a charity formed in 1985 to deal with social issues and in the past has run projects to support homeless people and helped free women trapped in forced labour in India.

More recently, it has taken on a network of 30 academies throughout the country which it will work with to help them deliver the best possible education.

It has joined up with the two sites in Minster and Sheerness to take them to the next level of improvement and is focused around schools working with their communities.

IOSA will benefit from the sponsorship as it means they will be part of what Oasis calls its family of academies and able to get expertise and knowledge from other head teachers as well as having access to the charity’s help and support.

In future they will be looking at setting up a community hub where projects will be run to benefit not only pupils but the whole of the Island.

OCL is one of the largest education providers in the country and says school under its care have seen significant improvements.

Dulwich College and co-sponsors Kent County Council and the Diocese of Canterbury will work in partnership with the charity.

Dr Joe Spence, master of Dulwich College, said: “We have achieved a great deal educationally over the last four years.

“It was always part of our plan to help in the transformation of education on the Isle of Sheppey generally rather than simply sponsor one school and we are delighted Oasis has the resources to ensure this within a far shorter time frame than we could envisage.

“I also see Dulwich’s partnership with one of the major academy chains as a model which should encourage more independent schools to see how they might support the academies’ programme and make the sort of difference to the maintained sector that they all claim to want to make.”

Oasis founder Steve Chalke said: “We are incredibly excited about this new partnership and look forward to working together to engage the whole community and create a long term positive effect on the learning and educational outcomes of the Island’s young people.”