A TOP village primary school has become the latest in Oxfordshire to convert into an academy.

Watlington Primary School has filed paperwork on Ofsted's website, officially making the move to become an academy.

The 280-pupil school, which was rated 'outstanding' by Ofsted in 2013, will now be overseen by The Acer Trust rather than Oxfordshire County Council.

Academies are state-funded schools run by groups such as multi-academy trusts, as opposed to local authorities.

The Acer Trust runs five other schools in the county - Matthew Arnold School in Botley, Chalgrove Community Primary School, Icknield Community College, Wood Green School in Witney and Stadhampton Primary School.

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A document on Watlington Primary's website, published last year, explained the reasoning behind becoming an academy.

It said becoming part of the trust should give more control in how funding is spent, and should help to retain teachers as they will get more opportunity for development.

The document added: "Governors have spent some time weighing up the advantages and disadvantages.

"We want to be in control of our destiny and while there are inevitable risks through change, these are likely to be small.

"There has been a stealth agenda from the Government in terms of reduction in services and real-time reduction in budget, which has made us recognise that we need to act in a different way as the landscape changes around us.

"There is no desire to change a school’s culture or change the traditions of each individual school."