Plans for new academies announced

Schools Secretary Ed Balls has announced plans for three more schools to be transformed into academies.

Unity College in Northampton, Rossmore college in Poole, Dorset, and St Luke's School in Portsmouth, will join the 130 academies opened in Britain so far.

The three are part of the government's "national challenge" programme.

Mr Balls told the Commons that four more academies will open in January and 18 in September 2009. Ministers aim to open 400 in total.

Unity College is set to be sponsored by the local Church of England diocese, while Rossmore Community College will be receiving funding from Bournemouth University and the local diocese.

St Luke's School in Portsmouth will be sponsored by the charity ARK, supported by the local Church of England diocese.

'Still safe'

But shadow schools secretary Michael Gove questioned whether the academies programme was "still safe" after Andrew Adonis was reshuffled out of his post as schools minister in England.

"Since taking over the department, you have deprived new academies of many freedoms and sacked Sir Cyril Taylor - the guiding spirit of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT)," Mr Gove said.

"Now you're deprived of the services of Lord Adonis.

"To lose one of the parents of the academies programme might seem like a misfortune but to lose two looks a lot like carelessness."

Mr Balls said the SSAT was actually expanding its role in schools across the country and the three new academies would now "see their standards rise".

He said: "The suggestion that I have taken the academies programme backwards in the last year is complete nonsense.

"What I've done is brought more universities into our academies programme than ever before, I've made sure our academies are teaching the core parts of the curriculum while retaining their flexibility."