Devastated leaders of the trust that runs Stoke Poges' Khalsa Secondary Academy have been given 'notice to quit' by schools minister Baroness Elizabeth Berridge.

A letter sent to the trust Baroness Berridge says she is recommending that the Government withdraw all funding for the school at Hollybush Hill while it stays under the current leadership

She calls on the existing trust to work with officials while a new trust is appointed - emphasising that her department wants to see the school's Sikh ethos retained.

Her letter follows an inspection by a team of Government Ofsted inspectors six months ago which found the school 'inadequate' and placed it in special measures.

But chairman of the threatened trust Shaminder Kaur Ryatt has reacted angrily - writing to Baroness Berridge to tell her to give the trust a second chance by allowing Ofsted to visit again.

He told her: "The timing of your decision is very insensitive and wholly inappropriate because we are in the middle of planning the re-opening of our schools in an unprecedented situation.

"Your decision should have waited until schools were operating close to normal and after Ofsted had been allowed to visit the school."

Nick Singh Kandola, CEO of the current trust said this week: "We have tried very hard to convince the Department For Education to postpone their decision until Ofsted were ready to visit the school, and we are confident that they will rate it as a good school. We would like to reassure the school parents, staff and students that we will do everything in our power to protect the faith and ethos of the school. We will be considering all options including a legal challenge.”

But a statement send to the Observer from the Khalsa Secondary Academy Parent Group supported the minister's decision and accused the current trust of falsely trying to suggest it was an attack on the Sikh community and would threaten the school's Sikh ethos.

The statement says: "With the greatest of respect, if the trust had operated using Sikh core values, their moral compass would have delivered us an outstanding school and we would not be in this predicament – sadly this is not the case."

It points out that the nearby faith school Khalsa Primary School in Slough gained an 'outstanding' inspection result from Ofsted.

The Department of Education is aiming for October 31 as the date when it wants to see a trust changeover completed by.