I write in response to Tony Drake, Andy Gibbons and Dona Velluti about the plan to turn Peers School at Littlemore, Oxford, into an academy (Oxford Mail, May 17).

What have Ms Velluti and her friends in the trade unions got against the academy proposal? I think that they just cannot believe that this is a gift horse from which everyone can be a winner.

The Department for Education and Skills-funded £22m building won't happen if there isn't an academy. If Peers stays under local authority control, it has to wait until 2016, with all other schools in Oxfordshire, to get new buildings and is certainly not guaranteed a total rebuild.

The academy will give Peers a leg up which the other schools won't get - not nice for them, I know, but at least I can agree with Ms Velluti that money has been lacking at Peers. Now is the time to redress some of the disadvantages it has suffered.

Another factor only too evident to students and staff in the school is the shortage of specialist staff in critical areas.

Peers has some brilliant teachers who do a wonderful job, but there are too many vacant posts we cannot fill. The Peers' governors have raised this issue many times with the county council, which has taken what steps it can to help with staffing, but is limited by funding and by its obligations to other schools.

However, the prospect of a new building is already attracting applications for September.

One of the flagship elements of the academy is a staff development centre, to which Oxford Brookes University will make a major contribution.

It will be a major additional attraction to highly-motivated teachers. What about selection? The academy will admit pupils according to the existing local authority admission arrangements.

This commitment by the sponsors has been agreed at a meeting with Department for Education officials. Now we have this commitment, city and county councillors from all parties see the academy proposal as the best way forward to meet the local community's needs.

There is still a lot to talk about and there is still an opportunity to influence the development, but the signs are positive.

The first consultation meeting is on Tuesday, June 12, at Blackbird Leys Community Centre.

Please come along and help us to shape the future for our children and young people.

NICOLA SHELDON, Chairman of Governors Peers School, Littlemore, Oxford