PARENTS are protesting about plans to turn an East Yorkshire secondary school into an academy.

An action group is forming in the Pocklington area to oppose plans for Woldgate College to become an Academy school.

Richard Claxton, who is heading the group and is a father of two Woldgate pupils, said some parents are opposed to the scheme.

Woldgate head teacher Jeff Bower said Woldgate College has been investigating the option of academy conversion for some time.

Academies are independent schools which are being promoted by the Government: they are removed from local authority control and are funded directly by central government. They have a broad range of powers, including the ability to set their own curriculum and terms and conditions for staff, and to change the lengths of terms and school days.

Academies receive no additional funding - the difference is that they have more control over how they choose to spend it in the interests of their students.

Mr Claxton said: “For all their imperfections, local authorities provide an immensely valuable safety net which means they are there to help pick up the pieces if a school has difficulties or an emergency, such as a fire, flood or legal wrangle. Their ethos is to look after a ‘family’ of schools. What would happen in a fragmented, market-driven, academy system is unclear. The Government’s ideological drive to sound the death-knell for local education authorities and see schools run as businesses is putting huge pressure on schools to convert to academies. Some schools appear to be bulldozing through plans with only a sham or one-sided consultation."

“I urge all those people with an interest in the education of our children to look at the other side of the story: check out the website of the Anti Academy Alliance or contact me at richard.claxton@gmail.com for local information.”

Mr Bower said: “We invited all parents to a consultation meeting last week at which many issues were discussed and explained, including at length the views of Mr Claxton and the Anti-Academy Alliance. Mr Claxton’s emotive use of language attempts to draw the college into an ideological battle with the government which is entirely inappropriate.

“The unanimous decision of the governing body to set off down the Academy conversion route was taken as a rational, considered pragmatic response to the new education agenda in order to ensure the best possible outcomes for the students in our community.”