Director of children, families and schools David Hawker said a proposed city academy at Falmer High School in Brighton would not be academically selective and would remain a school for the Moulsecoomb community (The Argus, October 27).
How can he guarantee this?
The new academy will be outside of local authority control. The new governing body will only have one local authority member but up to seven appointed by the sponsor.
Does Councillor Hawker really think he will have a say in anything that happens in the new academy?
The Education and Skills Select Committee's report on secondary education, published in March, said the good results achieved by some academies may have been as a result of reducing the intake of pupils from deprived backgrounds.
The new academy would be able to select ten per cent of its pupils by aptitude and evidence from existing academies shows "selection by exclusion", with rates of children thrown out in one academy's first year treble the number in the previous year.
The only way Councillor Hawker can guarantee the continuation of Falmer as a school for the local community is to give it the backing of his department.
-Sue Suleyman, secretary, Brighton and Hove NUT Division
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