FOUR Oxfordshire schools with more than 4,500 pupils between them have been given the go-ahead to convert to Academies as early as September.

If all agree funding arrangements with the Department for Education (DfE), it would more than double the number of academies in the county.

The Banbury Dashwood Schools Federation, which is made up of the 1,440-pupil Banbury School and 200-pupil Dashwood School, has won Government backing to become an academy, making Dashwood the first primary school in Oxfordshire to get the status.

The DfE also backed bids to convert 1,500-pupil Wallingford School and 1,800-pupil King Alfred’s in Wantage.

Academies are free from local authority control and are funded directly by Whitehall, giving headteachers far more control over their budget, staff and curriculum.

All four schools will fix final conversion dates once they have agreed funding arrangements with the DfE, but are aiming to become academies by September.

Wallingford School headteacher Wyll Willis said: “It gives the freedom to be able to make our own decisions.

“I will not be worried about the education authority’s strategic planning or some operational activity, because I will not have to engage with it if I do not want to.

“We can buy the best servi-ces we can get for our money, rather than take what is offered by one organisation.”

Banbury and Dashwood schools became formally federated with a single board of governors and executive head in 2009, already credited with improving leadership and management.

Executive head Fiona Hammans said academy status gave even more autonomy and independence.

She said: “We are in the north of the county and long way from county council offices. While we have no bugbear with the local authority, this is about us being able to make timely decisions for our pupils and students in Banbury.

“If we wanted to change the National Curriculum for a particular year group, for example, we could do it.

“The National Curriculum has been prescribed for schools for so long, this is really exciting in giving us the freedom to think about what our youngsters should and could do.”

Dashwood head Vicki McLean said: “It could be worth up to another £50,000 a year in money redirected from the local authority directly to the school.”

At King Alfred’s, head Simon Spiers said: “Our governors are continuing cautiously towards a conversion date of August 1. All the groundwork has been done, but we are awaiting news of the funding agreement before we finally commit.”

Oxfordshire’s three existing academies – North Oxfordshire, Oxford and Oxford Spires – were set up to replace troubled secondary schools with low attainment. The coalition Government wants successful schools to convert.