Education secretary Gavin Williamson has said he wants schools rated as “requires improvement” by Ofsted in three consecutive inspections to be turned into academies.

He would like these schools to be moved into “strong multi-academy trusts”, he told the Confederation of School Trusts’ annual conference today.

He said it was “wrong” for schools to be in this position without action been taken.

But a headteachers’ union has warned that the proposal risked “stigmatising” schools trying to improve.

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Mr Williamson said he wanted to end the “pick and mix” approach to schools and move from having 50 per cent of pupils studying in academies to 100 per cent.

Plan to force schools into multi-academy trusts ‘risks stigmatisation’

“There are schools which have been judged ‘requires improvement’ or worse by Ofsted in their last three consecutive inspections,” he said.

“I want to bring these schools into strong multi-academy trusts and I hope to be able to share more details in due course.”

Currently, schools can be given an academy order by the Department for Education if they are rated as “inadequate” by Ofsted.

During a question and answer session at the conference, Mr Williamson added: “For me, it is wrong that actually schools that have maybe been sat in a situation where they’ve had three consecutive ‘requires improvement’ effectively can continue to sit there with no action being taken.

“That’s why I announced the changes that we are making today.”

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “We note a vague intention to bring schools with three consecutive Ofsted judgements of ‘requires improvement’ into MATs and we would caution the government about the unintended consequences of new forms of compulsion, such as further stigmatising schools in this category.”