REDBRIDGE: School to reopen as academy (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

REDBRIDGE: School to reopen as academy

9:39am Friday 3rd September 2010 in Your Local Areas By Ryan McCarthy

AN outstanding school in the borough will open for the new term on Monday as an academy.

Only two schools in the borough, Chadwell Heath Foundation School and Valentines High School, submitted a formal interest in becoming academies.

On Wednesday Chadwell Heath Foundation School became one of 216 schools in the country to be granted academy status for this academic year.

The school in Christie Gardens, Chadwell Heath, will now be known as Chadwell Heath Academy.

According to a Department of Education announcement, Valentines High School in Ilford is not in the next wave of schools which will become academies.

Michael Gove, Education Secretary, said: "This Government believes that teachers and head teachers, not politicians and bureaucrats, should control schools and have more power over how they are run.

"That’s why we are spreading academy freedoms. This will give heads more power to tackle disruptive children, to protect and reward teachers better, and to give children the specialist teaching they need."