• Open letter to the board of governors of the seven high schools in Harrow considering moving to academy status:

We are very concerned that Harrow Council’s political administration is using the official machinery of the council to lobby governors on academies.

You will have seen comments made by Councillor Brian Gate, as well as official council-branded information and documents, stating the council’s preference for those schools considering academy status to “remain within the family of schools in the borough.”

One such document was distributed at a governors’ briefing on March 2.

In actuality, what you have been given is the political preference of the governing party masquerading as the position of the entire council, as the opposition has had no say whatsoever in crafting this viewpoint.

The recent change to age of transfer and the introduction of sixth forms were strongly underpinned by a cross-party consensus spanning both Conservative and Labour administrations.

However, the council’s current Labour administration has made no attempt to forge a similar consensus view on academies and, despite its political preference for you remaining in council control, this should not be interpreted as the settled environment within which you would have to operate.

Future Conservative administrations will be very supportive of a decision to become an academy if that is the route that, as a board of governors, you choose.

The decision you have to make in the next few months should come down to which option you believe will help Harrow’s schools improve and provide a better education for our children.

There are certain facts we believe make the case for academies becoming part of Harrow.

Schools converting to academies will see an increase in funding of between six and eight per cent, with the freedom to spend it on improving the quality of the schooling they provide, as well as building even stronger relationships with other Harrow schools.

They will also be better placed to attract funding from private sources. In addition, academies will enjoy greater freedom to develop and create their curriculum to meet the needs and desires of their students, also taking advantage of their own teaching expertise.

Academies will also become far more accountable to parents and their students than schools are at present and, perhaps most significantly, the option to become academies is now available to good and outstanding schools for the first time, meaning they can do even more to grow and flourish.

It is unfortunate that, as well as the council spending money to produce documents and press releases to force home its political message, disinformation about academies has become commonplace with regard to what is provided to the public.

We recognise the decision you have to make on academy status is perhaps the most significant regarding education in Harrow for a generation.

We do not want to interfere in that process, since we know you will consider all the evidence during your deliberations.

However, we feel it right to formally bring to your attention what we believe to be highly inappropriate behaviour on the part of the council’s administration in attempting to sway both your decision and the minds of the public.

Harrow Council Conservative Group