A TOP teaching union representative has urged education minister Michael Gove to intervene at Basildon Academies and put the school back under local authority control.

Gerry Glazier, general secretary of the Essex and Southend National Union of Teachers, said the Academy Trust which is headed up by millionaire sponsor Martin Finegold is inadequate and has not shown any improvements in the last six months.

Academies are free of local authority control and the contract Mr Finegold signed up for when he agreed to be the sponsor was under the former Labour government.

Mr Glazier said: “The secretary of state appears to be powerless in this situation and Mr Gove needs to make this school the top of his agenda.

“The old contracts that Mr Finegold signed when the Academies opened gave sponsors seven years to try and turn the school round and they are written in a way which makes it very difficult for the sponsor of a school to be removed by the Department of Education.

“They were written in the interests of the sponsor so that they were given time to turn a school round and not just be removed in a short space of time. “But this academy trust has been shown to be inadequate and that is in the public domain because Ofsted said that in their March report.

“I think the school needs to be taken back under local authority control because the way it is at the moment there is very little which outside powers can do to intervene.

“If the school was under local authority control they would be able to give the governing body a time limit to put in an action plan and if it is not good enough the governing body could be removed and replaced with an emergency one to help turn the school round quickly.

“A school needs good leadership and the issue here is that the academy trust has not got enough educational expertise.”

Basildon MP Stephen Metcalfe has been writing to Lord Hill, the minister responsible for academies, and now top education officers will be going into the school this week.

A spokesman for the Department of Education has said education chiefs are working with the school and are really hoping to take it forward.

She added: “We are very concerned by the performance of these schools. We have been working with the Basildon Academies since last October and we have made clear the action they need to take to turn around both Academies quickly.

“The Academy Trust has recruited an interim Principal with a proven track record and has sought additional external expertise. They report that they are now above the floor standards for the first time.

“We and Ofsted will continue to closely monitor the schools to ensure that their pupils are getting the education they deserve.