ONE of Southend’s most successful schools is hoping to become one of the first academies created under the new coalition Government.

Westcliff High School for Boys has applied to break away from local authority control by becoming an academy, a state-funded school with a high degree of autonomy.

Schools rated as outstanding by watchdog Ofsted will be given the first opportunity to change status under the new Government’s plans to create thousands more academies.

Headteacher Andrew Baker said: “Our full application has now been submitted and we hope to become an academy on September 1.

“We are in it seriously and we are pursuing it vigorously.”

The selective school has a history of going its own way, becoming grant maintained 19 years ago which gave it a degree of detachment from the local authority.

Mr Baker said: “We lost that in 1998 when grant maintained schools were no more, but we see academy status as being something that will give us the greater element of freedom over our own curriculum, over staffing, the potential levels of staff remuneration and over detachment from the local authority.

“In addition, there will be, because of the loss of local authority services, some increased funding for the school.”

A decision on the school’s application is expected in the next few weeks, and Mr Baker has high hopes for the future.

He said: “We regard this as a very exciting opportunity for the school.

“We want to be in at the start and the governors have given exceptionally strong support to our application.

“We are a school that has been designated as outstanding by Ofsted on four consecutive occasions and we are confident we can turn this next phase in our history to the good of the pupils of this school.”