Parents protesting Government plans to force their children's primary school to become an academy took their fight to the headquarters of their proposed new partner this week.

Children wearing Michael Gove masks and placard-bearing parents descended on the offices of the Harris Federation to make their voices heard about the Department for Education's bid to remove Roke Primary School from local authority control.

The proposals would see the Kenley school be absorbed by the Federation against the wishes of governors and many parents and teachers. 

It comes after the school was served with notice to improve by Ofsted inspectors last year, having previously received consecutive outstanding ratings by the watchdog.

Becky Carrier, 31, whose eight-year-old daughter Millie attends the school, was among those protesting outside the Wellesley Road headquarters.

She said: "We are keeping the pressure on and trying to keep the profile of the school up. 

"Harris are cherry-picking schools that they know will be easy to turn around. 

"The existing management team can turn Roke around and it would not take them any more time, but they just have not been given the chance.

"Why give a school a notice to improve and then not give it time to improve and then, without even looking to see if improvements have been made, come in and turn it into an academy.

"It doesn't add up."

Last week governors and parents announced they were launching legal action to challenge the Government's plans. 

They have condemned a consultation on Roke's academy conversion as "a sham," after ministers asked the Federation to run the consultation itself.

The consultation period ends on April 19.