Published: November 7, 2012
Highbridge's Churchfield School gains academy status

Highbridge's Churchfield School is to become an academy, it has been announced this week.

It is among three Church of England primary schools across Somerset to be given the go-ahead by the County Council to become academies by April.

The Diocese of Bath and Wells is setting up a trust to help govern the schools once they are outside the local education authority's control.

Academies are independent, state-funded schools, which receive their funding directly from central government, rather than through a local authority. They have more freedom than other state schools over their finances, curriculum, length of terms and school days and do not need to follow national pay and conditions for teachers.

Currently, there are 36 academy schools in Somerset with others hoping to gain the status.

Pictured: Pupils outside the new-look Churchfield School when it opened for the first time in September