City Academies 'will harm local schools'

A new generation of state-funded independent schools threatens to drain comprehensives of the best pupils, headteachers said yesterday.

The warning came as the first City Academies opened to pupils in the London borough of Bexley and in Middlesbrough. The Secondary Heads Association said the academies were going to "make life difficult" for neighbouring schools.

City Academies are state- funded independent secondary schools backed by up to £2m in sponsorship from the private or voluntary sectors or by churches or other faith groups. But the remainder of the capital costs and the revenue funding comes from the state although the academies enjoy the freedoms of independent schools. Academies will be free to vary the curriculum and the length of the school day, and can pay their staff different rates.

The Business Academy, in Bexley, is sponsored by the property millionaire David Garrard. It opens today and has rejected conventional A-level courses in favour of the international baccalaureate and a longer school day.

The Unity City Academy, in Middlesbrough, is sponsored by the business support company Amey. It opened on Friday and hopes to create a learning centre for 1,200 pupils using the latest technology.

Kate Griffin, president of the Secondary Heads Association and principal of Greenford High School in Ealing, west London, said she was extremely concerned at the impact the academy planned for her borough would have on comprehensives. "The effect is not likely to be positive."

Heads said they were concerned that the academies' state-of-the-art facilities and generous funding would attract the children of "aspirational" and middle-class families, displacing more needy pupils to other schools. Some believe the plans will mean the end of the comprehensive system.

But a spokeswoman for the Department for Education and Skills said: "Diversity in school provision will help raise standards and aspirations for the whole community of schools across the board."

Academies are also planned for the London boroughs of Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Hackney, Haringey, Hillingdon, Lambeth and Southwark. Others will open in Bradford, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Northampton, Sandwell and Walsall, with two in Liverpool and in Middlesbrough.