Oldham top of academy table

THE Government is insisting its controversial academies programme has been a success as it revealed Oldham boasts the highest percentage across the North-West.

Blue Coat, Crompton House and Hathershaw high schools start the new term as academies after the programme was opened up to high-performers.

They are part of the new-wave of convertor academies which do not need to have a sponsor.

Limeside is the borough’s first primary school to become an academy, changing its name to Oasis Academy Limeside.

Its sponsor already runs Oasis Academy Oldham which is one of Oldham’s three existing secondary academies along with Oldham Academy North and Waterhead Academy.

They opened a year ago as part of of the previous government’s scheme to replace failing schools.

This means that 46.2 per cent of Oldham’s secondary schools are now academies, the highest percentage across the North-West where the average was just 22.2 per cent.

Education Secretary Michael Gove pledged his reforms were handing power to teachers, rather than politicians or bureaucrats.

Academies can expect to receive roughly 10 per cent more funding — direct from central government — than they currently get from their local education authority, according to a DfE source.

They would also run their own finances and curriculum.

Mr Gove said academies had out-performed local authority-controlled secondary schools in the recent GCSE results.

He added: “The speed at which schools have been converting to academies is a very flattering endorsement of what we are trying to do. We didn’t expect them to be so popular, with so many heads, in so many parts of the country.”

Nationally, 30 per cent of all secondary schools are now academies with the South-West boasting the highest percentage at 46.3 per cent.

Mr Gove added: “There has been a decisive shift of power away from the bureaucracy in town halls and towards the front line. This means schools are now in a position where they can really motor in terms of improvement.”