PERSHORE High School headteacher Clive Corbett has pledged that the school’s move to become an academy this summer will not be used to “cream off” the best pupils.

Governors at Pershore High School have voted for the school to convert to academy status – taking it outside of local education authority (LEA) control.

It means the school will be directly funded by the Department for Education and will be able to make unilateral decisions such as how to spend its money as well as setting its own admissions procedure.

However, Mr Corbett has vowed to make no changes to the school’s name, admissions policy, catchment area, school transport, special educational needs and staff pay and conditions.

Mr Corbett said governors had written a promise to serve catchment feeder schools into the academy’s terms and conditions in response to fears from some parents that the school would change its admission policy.

“Our first loyalty will be to our middle schools. There will be no testing or creaming off of pupils. That was one of the biggest things that parents and the school were concerned about.”

Mr Corbett said the move was not financially motivated but would initially give the school a cash injection of £400,000.

He said: “The advantage is some of the independence it will give us, particularly with the curriculum we can offer. It means we can continue to buy in the local authority services that we value and we can also look elsewhere.”

The conversion is likely to take place either on July 1 or August 1. The school was able to apply for the academy status because it is rated good with outstanding features by Ofsted.