I agree with Robert Perry’s letter published in the Stourbridge News on April 14, entitled “ Education Threat.” Twenty years ago I was involved as a parent in a concerted attempt to make The Grange School (Pedmore Technology College) opt out of local authority control.
During the bitter battle I learned that one of the most striking dangers was the ability of so-called free-schools to formulate their own admissions policy. This can result in children from the same secondary catchment area ending up at different schools.
Imagine the difficulties inflicted on parents being forced to deliver and collect youngsters at more than one school. Head teachers of academies are expected to be good financial managers. There has been at least one local case of a super-head suffering under the strain of having to be at the same time a teacher and personnel manager with business skills to the point where their financial duties become too much for them.
Academies create markets in the best pupils and teachers. There is a clear role for supervision by local authorities which can provide expertise to support schools as well as employ specialists to whom parents can turn for arbitration.
P Alan Bartram
Stourbridge
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