Tories’ academies policies are failing primary age children

Michael Rosen questions the success of school academies (Education, 22 May) but does not mention the worst case scenario that can occur – closure. Burnt Yates school, in north Yorkshire, a small jewel of a rural primary school with excellent buildings, fields and woodland and an active and generous trust, must close at the end of this academic year. When it was backed into a corner it could not find an academic chain to take it on; amalgamation came to nought and now the school must close.

Burnt Yates school was founded and endowed in 1760; over 250 years of excellent education have taken place since then, supported until recently by one of the very best education authorities in the country.

After a series of disastrous decisions by the current local authority, a poor Ofsted report put the seal on the school’s fate. Huge efforts were made by parents, governors, trustees, our MP and the local community but to no avail. The money was not there and closure was the only way forward.

I blame Michael Gove. Without his academies plan and the virtual destruction of local accountability, Burnt Yates and the six other north Yorkshire schools that have already closed recently would be still providing excellent relevant education to rural communities. We are poorer because of what is happening.
Andrea Ives
Headteacher, 1970-1984

• The civil servant quoted in Michael Rosen’s latest Letter from a curious parent was being economical with the truth. His department does publish data about sponsored academy primary schools, which have been forced out of council control. SATs results continue to show that these schools (and free schools) do worse than average. That is not in itself surprising because sponsored academies have more pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. The more telling statistic is that results should get better when sponsored academies have had more time to “improve”. They don’t.

I was a primary school governor in Cornwall. The governors were jettisoned. The head jumped before he was pushed. The school disappeared, taken over by a neighbour. SATs results under the inaptly named ACE academy chain are further below average than ever. Last year’s results at other ACE schools were not a lot better. The inadequate supervision of academies has allowed ACE to take on more schools and open a new free school despite modest results.
Philip Kerridge
Ex-governor of the former Robartes school, Bodmin, Cornwall

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