A COUNCILLOR has raised questions over a strategy that could see under-performing schools being transformed into sponsored Academies.

The Government has indicated schools that fall below a “floor target” of certain standards will be turned into sponsored academies to drive up attainment.

Oxfordshire County Council has revealed there are 10 schools in the county that could face this change.

The council’s cabinet last week voted to support schools converting to academies, to look at creating an Oxfordshire Academies Programme, and to create a “structured and supportive environment for school autonomy and collaboration”.

John Tanner represents the Isis division, which contains two Oxford schools that are earmarked for transformation – Larkrise and John Henry Newman.

In a question to cabinet, he asked schools improvement cabinet member Melinda Tilley to explain why she was “pressuring excellent, locally well-regarded and improving primary schools, such as Larkrise, to take on academy status when it damages the morale of staff and parents, and there is no firm evidence that academy status will improve standards for children.”

Mrs Tilley said Larkrise was well below national floor standards in 2010 to 2011. She said: “Our view is that these schools should ask whether or not becoming a sponsored academy might lead to the step-change that has not yet been achieved.”

She said she did not have the power to force schools to become academies, but later added schools secretary Michael Gove expected all schools to eventually become academies.