READERS can rest assured that, far from giving up, many Cheney School parents are to continue campaigning against schools converting into Academies (Parents Lose Fight to Stop Academy Plans, May 24).

The brief consultation processes being launched on unsuspecting parents, after most school governors have been considering the change since the coalition Government came to power in May 2010, are nothing but a sham.

Academies have nothing to do with improving education but everything to do with politics – taking schools away from local authorities and local accountability and, eventually, opening them up to being run by businesses, for profit.

Oxford secondary schools are being tempted to convert by the one-off, cash ‘bribe’ offered by the Government and by rumours that the pro-academy county council is going to cut almost all funding to schools and force them into becoming academy chains.

Scaremongering of this nature is commonplace but can be challenged if we all work together and say ‘no’.

The Gosford Hill School consultation process ends next week and parents at Matthew Arnold, Wheatley Park, and St Gregory’s, be warned – you are next in line! Ask your school now what is going on.

Remember, only 19 out of 279 county schools are academies.

For information and support, please contact us on Facebook ‘Oxford Against Academies’ or cheney.parents@hotmail.co.uk.

Thank you to all 551 people who signed our petition and to the Hertford Street Bakery and Headington Co-op for their kind assistance.

JUDY RAVEN, Latimer Road, Oxford