Primary schools increasingly likely to join drive to become academies

Primary schools across Yorkshire are embracing the academy programme and converting at a higher rate than ever, The Yorkshire Post can reveal.

The number of primaries becoming academies in the region has almost doubled in the last three years. And more and more primary schools at the heart of the community are choosing to become part of academy chains.

Yesterday The Yorkshire Post revealed that one third of schools in Yorkshire are no longer controlled by local authorities –showing the startling growth of the programme in the county.

And new research shows that there are now 488 primary schools that have converted to academies in the region, with 254 opening in the last three years.

Primary schools have been eligible to become academies since 2010.

Campaigning parent Nicky Rhodes, who is fighting to save the tiny Horton-in-Ribblesdale School in the Yorkshire Dale, has called it a “safety mechanism” for smaller primary schools.

She said: “I don’t know if it’s the best option educationally, but it is certainly one that means you are less under the gaze of the local authority.”

‘Academy chains have benefits’: Page 8.