EDUCATION lovers are urging everyone interested in defending state schools to attend a meeting next month.
Parents, teachers and trade unionists unsuccessfully fought Cheshire Oaks High and performing arts school EPSSA in Ellesmere Port forming the University of Chester Church of England Academy.
But now the Anti Academies Alliance is concerned that 14 more schools in Cheshire West have expressed an interest in the academy route, which it views as privatisation.
A successful change to academy status would see a school leave the authority of Cheshire West and Chester Council and enable it to set pay and conditions for staff.
Academies are also free from following the national curriculum and able to change the lengths of school terms and days.
Critics fear loss of local control and accountability and worry those from poor backgrounds and children with special educational needs will be disadvantaged when applying to academies.
Schools to express an interest in the possibility of becoming an academy include Christleton High and the Catholic High in Chester, Bishop Heber, Malpas, Delamere Primary and Kelsall Primary School.
Meeting organiser Greg Foster, who is also division secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “There is too much at stake for good people to stand by and do nothing.”
The Anti Academies Alliance meeting takes place at Ellesmere Port Civic Centre, Vauxhall Suite, from 6-8pm on Monday, September 13.
