Tina Lee has been named the new £100,000 principal of Sheppey's Oasis Academy. The appointment is to be announced to staff and parents today (Monday).

Ms Lee, who joined the school three years ago, was already a key member of the senior leadership team.

She was associate principal before stepping up as interim principal following John Cavadino's resignation at Easter.

She was previously deputy head at Haggerston School in east London where she helped improve it from Satisfactory to Good.

She will be the fifth head since the troubled school, formerly known as the Sheppey Comprehensive and Minster College, has been an academy.

The last Ofsted report labelled it as

Oasis founder Steve Chalke, who was on the interview panel, said: "We are delighted to have appointed Tina. She has implemented positive change across the Academy since joining us and she impressed the interview panel with her vision and drive to continue improvements for the students.”

He described her as an "excellent educationalist with considerable school leadership experience."

But he admitted: "We recognise a number of long-standing challenges have, until now, hindered the Academy from becoming the 'good' or better school the community deserves.

"Therefore, we are committing the time of specialists from across the Oasis family whose skills will complement the work of Tina and her staff."

He stressed: "We are fully committed to the Isle of Sheppey for the long haul, not only to our young people and their families but to the entire community.

"There is plenty of work to do but we are grateful for the support of so many people and institutions.

"We are convinced we now have the plans and personnel in place to ensure that while our teachers teach and our students study, we have the capacity to fulfil our wider role of working alongside other community groups beyond the classroom. The success of this school relies on a whole-Island approach.”

The six-strong support team drafted in will be led by the Rev Chalke and will comprise:

Matt Tiplin, Oasis’ London and South East regional lead principal, who will visit the Academy every week supporting the strategic direction of the school;

Oasis’s national director of academies Philip Beaumont and regional director Kirstie Fulthorpe will form a Trust Improvement Group to monitor the effects of changes to deliver improvements for students’ development and welfare.

Carly Mitchell, lead principal and principal of the ‘Outstanding’ Oasis Academy South Bank, London, will continue her role developing the curriculum, teaching, learning and assessment.

Oasis national director for secondary Graham Tuck will continue his evaluation of attainment, ensuring each student makes the progress they deserve.

The school, split over two sites at Sheerness and Minster, was originally designed to teach 2,500 pupils but that figure has slumped to 1,500 as worried parents have switched their children to rival Sittingbourne schools or educated them at home.

In March last year, school inspectors from Ofsted said Sheppey's only secondary school was still not good enough and improvements had not been made as quickly as needed.