London gets new city academies

London is to get at least 60 flagship city academies by the end of the decade, it emerged today.

Some will be brand new, but most will replace existing failing schools with state-of-the-art facilities, backed by private sector sponsorship as well as millions in government spending.

It represents the biggest single investment in school building in the capital for a generation.

Compared with the rest of the country, twice as many London parents now send their children to independent schools - 14 per cent in inner London - while the best of the capital's state schools are up to 10 times over-subscribed.

But even as the Government announced its plans, fresh fears were raised that the new schools will simply further intensify the polarisation of education.

Another blow came as it was reported that the first of the new style of schools - Bexley Business Academy which opened in 2002 - had failed a recent Ofsted inspection.

David Friend, chairman of the Bexley Governors Forum executive, said the report had not been published yet but the news had leaked out. "It will give a lot of ammunition to critics," he said.

Head teachers' leaders and parents' groups warned that the new academies - independent state schools largely funded direct from Whitehall - will become London's new "grammar schools", potentially destabilising other schools.

Parents will demand places at the newest and best-equipped schools, rejecting others which would pale by comparison. These risked facing falling numbers, a financial crisis and a spiral into decline.

But senior government sources spelled out today how city academies could have a " bazookalike" effect on inner city education.

"These will be new and exciting schools," they said. "By definition, they will be in areas where education standards have not been good.

"They will be beacons which will inspire and lead by example and collaboration. Other schools will have to raise their game."

However, Education Secretary Charles Clarke has admitted it is a high-risk strategy. The "bazooka effect", he admitted to MPs this week, remained "a hope at this stage rather than anything else".

Today, parents voiced their concerns. Louise Irvine, a GP who helped found the New School Campaign in Lewisham, said: "There is a danger of a two-tier system. Academies could be funded so well they outshine other schools and give them an unfair advantage.

"The danger is that academies will be yet more schools which select their pupils according to those they think are going to succeed."

David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "This is not the panacea that will deliver parental choice. The danger is that it will deliver another set - just a different set - of dissatisfied parents, who can't get their children into these newly desirable schools.

"At the same time, other local schools could be destabilised."