Everyone knows the old adage ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’, in other words, any attempt to improve on a system that works is pointless and may even be detrimental.

Why then is the Government rushing legislation through Parliament by means of the Academies Bill which, if passed, would allow qualifying schools to become academies? Schools rated as outstanding by Ofsted would automatically qualify should the head and board of governors agree.

What is of concern, however, is that the process requires no consultation between a head and the school’s governors either with parents or the teaching and support staff.

Any school becoming an academy would be accountable directly to the Secretary of State for Education and more unelected Whitehall bureaucrats with most, if not all, control removed from the local authority which would effectively disenfranchise local communities. This is a long way from the decentralisation so often talked about, not to mention giving parents a greater say in education.

Michael Beere, Green Drove, Pewsey.