Plans to turn all schools into academies would be 'devastating' for rural Shropshire

Government officials were challeged to pay an "urgent visit" to south Shropshire to see the effect on small schools of joining academy chains.

The demand comes from councillors Heather Kidd, Nigel Hartin and Charlottes Barnes, who say they oppose a pledge by Chancellor George Osborne to turn every school in England currently run by the local authority into an academy run by a trust or as part of a multi-school academy group.

The announcement has led to warnings from councillors across the country, including Oxfordshire County Council, which covers David Cameron's constituency, that small village schools could be at risk of closure if no longer supported by local authorities and not allowed to become stand-alone academies.

The Shropshire councillors have invited Pank Patel, the government's Schools Commissioner for West Midlands, to visit and see such schools in the county for himself.

Heather Kidd, Shropshire Councillor for Chirbury and Worthen, said: "I am appalled that there is so little understanding of rural areas whose school invariably provide excellent education.

"The government view is that schools on one site need to have around 120 pupils.

"Children in the 300 square miles of our part of Shropshire may well end up being educated in towns such as Bishop's Castle, Ludlow and Pontesbury.

"Four-year-olds could be forced to travel for well over an hour to get to school on the current circuitous picking-up routes."

Clun councillor Nigel Hartin added: "The Government obviously hasn't thought through the impact this measure will have on rural areas throughout England. In Shropshire it could be devastating.

"It is critical that we get across this message, hence our invite to Mr Patel.

"We are keen to take him round a number of village schools to show him the excellent standards of teaching that they deliver."

Melinda Tilley, the cabinet member for education at Oxfordshire County Council, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Friday: "It means a lot of little primary schools will be forced to go into multi-academy trusts and I just feel it's the wrong time, in the wrong place, for little primary schools to be forced into doing this.

"I'm afraid there could be a few little village schools that get lost in all of this."