Academy-interest schools will have names revealed

Union leaders have been calling on Education Secretary Michael Gove to disclose the names, citing concerns that staff and parents were being left in the dark, and that a failure to do so would show an "undemocratic" lack of "openness and transparency".

The list of schools is due to be published by the Department for Education tomorrow.

An email sent by the Department to outstanding schools that have applied for academy freedoms, seen by the Press Association news agency, said the DfE was releasing the information after being asked for it under Freedom of Information (FoI) laws.

It said: "The DfE has received a number of requests, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, to release a list of schools who have registered an interest in becoming an academy.

"In accordance with the provisions of this Act, the Department intends to publish on Friday June 25 on the Department's website the list of schools who have registered an interest with us." The list would be updated as more schools registered, it said.

Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, said yesterday: "It is outrageous that it has taken pressure from unions and parent groups to get the government to publish a list of schools expressing an interest in academy status.

"We will study the list with great interest and will be in contact with our members and parents at the schools involved."

Kevin Courtney, deputy general secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), said: "We are pleased that they have finally bowed to the pressure of the number of FoI requests that have been put in.

"I think this is not something that they wanted to do themselves, that indicates that they have been trying to keep a cloak of secrecy over this programme."

He added that there needed to be full consultation with pupils, parents and teachers, adding "the future of state education is far too important to be run in this cloak and dagger way".

Mr Courtney said the NUT wanted to ensure that the governors, teachers and other interested parties of each of the schools that had registered an interest had access to all information about the plans.

A DfE spokesman said: "We are happy to make the list public and it was always our intention to do so once schools had notified their governing bodies and parents."

So far, 1,772 primary, secondary and special schools have registered. Of these, 870 are rated "outstanding" by Ofsted.

Mr Gove revealed plans last month to grant state schools more independence and wrote to headteachers of every primary, secondary and special school in England inviting them to apply for academy status.