A NORTH Essex school campus is set to split from another site and go it alone as an academy.

Ramsden Hall School, a day and boarding school for boys with behavioural difficulties, is split between sites in Langham, near Colchester and Ramsden Heath, near Billericay in south Essex.

Essex County Council has launched a public consultation to split the two into separate schools, with the Langham site set to become an academy financed by a sponsor.

The Ramsden Heath site would remain a community special needs school under Essex County Council control.

County Hall wants the radical shake-up because the south Essex campus is failing, and weaker than its “stronger” north Essex site, due to poor teaching and bad behaviour of pupils, who disrupt classmates.

The school was put into special measures in March after Ofsted inspectors found it was "inadequate" in all areas - with most of the problems blamed on the south Essex site.