Six Shropshire schools apply to be academies

Only six out of 226 schools in Shropshire have applied for academy status, government education officials said today.

Academies are the coalition government's big idea for the future of schooling in Britain. If a school is granted academy status, it is given greater opportunities to raise standards, including freedom from local authority control and the ability to set pay and conditions for staff.

It also has freedoms around the delivery of the curriculum and the ability to change the lengths of terms and school days.

The Department for Education said that in England, 1,144 schools have applied for academy status out of more than 20,000 eligible.

In Shropshire, The Corbet School Technology and Language College, in Baschurch; and the Marches School, at Oswestry, have converted to academy status, with Ifton Heath primary in St Martins in the process of applying for the change of status.

Ifton Heath is due to be closed in August and merged with Rhyn Park Secondary School to form an all-through school, and is pressing ahead with academy plans as a way of staying open.

Maesbury Primary School, also due to close next year, has abandoned its hope of becoming an academy.

In the Telford & Wrekin Council area, Priorslee Primary School and Newport's Girls' High and Adams' Grammar schools have become academies.

Writing in the December edition of the Corbet School newsletter, head teacher Philip Adams said the switch to academy status had been a success.

"The most obvious benefits for us have been that staff have been able to receive high quality professional development activities to ensure standards remain high in school.

"I know that some members of our school community were concerned about our change to academy status.

"I hope that the actions we have taken since conversion have alleviated those concerns."

The government is also encouraging faith groups, academy parents and teachers who are dissatisfied with existing education provision to set up their own 'free schools'.

So far, just 24 have opened in England, with none in Shropshire.