THREE founders of a Christian-based school have resigned over their fears that its faith ethos and pupils’ exam performances will not survive a takeover by a new sponsor.

Two of the founders, Elizabeth Gray and John Burn, have spoken out saying they had no option but to resign from Grindon Hall Christian School, in Sunderland.

They say they are concerned that a secular sponsor will be left in the impossible position of trying to run a Christian school.

The founders are calling on the Department of Education (DfE) to look into how the faith ethos of schools can be preserved when they are taken over by a multi-academy trust (MAT) and to provide similar legal protections to those enjoyed by Anglican and Roman Catholic schools in the same situation.

Grindon Hall, a free school, was controversially told last year that it would be taken over by Bright Tribe, a MAT run by North-West venture capitalist Michael Dwan.

The school’s founders were instructed by the DfE to accept the sponsor despite overwhelming opposition from parents and founders.

Mr Burn said: “When we wrote to the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools, Lord Nash, last September we raised our concerns that Bright Tribe had never run a school with a faith ethos.

“At Grindon Hall it has always been the Christian foundation that we and parents believe underpinned the school’s success and popularity.”

Matters came to a head when the founders were asked to agree to the school being formally passed over to Bright Tribe, and to the founding charity being dissolved.

Mrs Gray said: “The decision made by the DfE last year is forcing us down a secular route. The school won’t even have its own local board of governors. There will be no-one who can effectively guard the ethos. We appeal to the new Secretary of State, Justine Greening, to review the decision of her predecessor.”

There was no-one available for comment at Bright Tribe or the DfE.