Roke Primary is to become part of the Harris Federation's chain of academies, the Government has confirmed, bringing to an end a protracted battle over the school's future. 

The school, in Little Roke Road, will become Harris Primary Academy Kenley from September after the Department for Education (DfE) returned its long-expected verdict this week. 

Parents opposing the conversion had already all but admitted defeat in their fight against the school being removed from local authority control and handed to the Federation. 

The DfE had repeatedly signalled its determination to force the school to become an academy and its preference for Harris as its sponsor, in spite of protests from parents, Croydon South MP Richard Ottaway and initally teachers and governors. 

Your Local Guardian: Roke campaigners protesting at the Harris Federation's headquarters in Wellesley Road last month

Parents and pupils protest at the Harris Federation's headquarters in Wellesley Road

A letter to the school's governors from John Nash, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools, has now confirmed the plans will go ahead.

It said: "I recognise that the majority of those who responded to the consultation have said that they would prefer the school to be maintained by the local authority. 

"I do not believe, however, that were the school to remain maintained by the local authority, this outcome would be in the best interests of the pupils at the school of provide efficient education."

He said an application to sponsor Roke from Riddlesdown Collegiate, a Purley secondary school with pre-existing links to the primary, was rejected because it "did not have the right skills to sponsor an underperforming primary schools". 

His verdict comes despite Harris having no track record of turning around failing primaries. 

The DfE began its bid to turn Roke into an academy after the school was told to improve by Ofsted inspectors in May 2012.