I HAVE followed the Laverstock Academy saga with increasing concern and disbelief.

It now seems to have reached the stage where naked rough politics has taken over from reasoned debate; the latest statement from Wiltshire Council is “No Academy – no money”.

Let’s start at the beginning, in case everyone forgets what it is all about. There are three schools at Laverstock; St Joseph’s, a catholic school that successfully specialises in nurturing a lower ability intake; St Edmund’s, a girls’ secondary modern school with an excellent reputation and a level of high academic achievement; and Wyvern College, a boys’ secondary modern school that has had difficulties and is now suffering from a declining intake and seriously deteriorating buildings.

The real problem is, therefore, what can be done to help Wyvern. Wyvern would surely benefit from an association with St Edmund’s, but any such association should be of a type that does not jeopardise the essential character and the features of St Edmund’s that make it, manifestly, a success. An academy as proposed would not satisfy this requirement.

I’m a retired engineer, not involved in education, so I went to the Government’s website to find out about academies, and to compare what is said there with reality in respect of the Laverstock schools.

I looked at the information about academies and the criteria for schools to become academies. Based on these, it is hard to see how anyone came up with the idea of turning the three Laverstock schools into a single academy. (To give details would make this letter even longer.) The more I think about it, the more I believe the idea is driven by politics and not by educational needs.

Wiltshire’s main driver appears to be that if there is an academy, there will be (or might be, given the present financial situation) central government funding for the necessary building work. Without an academy, Wiltshire will have to fund work at Wyvern themselves. The realities of politics, perhaps, but bad logic.

Education should be focused on the needs of the children, not of politicians. In this case, that must mean addressing the needs of Wyvern in a way that does not put at risk the very real opportunities that already exist for the pupils of St Edmund’s and St Joseph’s.

Those who have to make the decision should say no to the academy, and whenever the money question is raised, remember Matthew Chapter 6 verse 24.

COLIN REED, Salisbury