WHILST we are still waiting for details, Matthew Arnold School’s governors would appear to warrant praise for their decision not to convert the school over to an academy.

The decision will mean it is the only secondary in the city not to go down this path of greater independence that so many schools have trodden recently.

Melinda Tilley, the county councillor in charge of education, has previously spoken with a little concern about the impact of the vast majority of schools hitching up their wagons and leaving the local education authority’s camp.

There are some advantages to becoming an academy but our view has always been that each school should make the decision based solely on its own circumstances.

The danger we feared was that schools would be seduced by the promise of the first tranche of Government money without looking medium and long term.

Matthew Arnold’s governing body has only said so far that it felt becoming an academy would not improve the education of the students and for us that has to be the only real consideration.

The education of the children is the sole reason for a school to exist. And so it surely must be reassuring for parents to know that the governing body has clearly weighed the advantages against the disadvantages of academy status and decided its pupils would not be better off. You may or may not agree with the decision but the governors have shown strong and independent leadership.