The head teacher at Hook-with-Warsash Primary School is urging people in the Western Wards to have their say about the school changing to an academy.
Chris Hines hopes to give the school in Church Road more “freedom” by changing it to academy status – which would mean it would become a publicly-funded school outside the control of the local authority.
A consultation is currently underway at the Church of England school asking the views of the community to decide if it should be among the more than 1,600 academies across the country.
Mr Hines said: “Hampshire County Council has been a very supportive authority, but this will give the school the freedom to do things the school could not necessarily do.
“It’s not primarily a financial decision. But as an academy we will have the money ourselves to decide where we want to get the services we want and how we want to use those services.
“It’s about utilising the staff’s strengths we’ve got now and employing top staff. An academy status can attract the best staff and the knock on effect will be the pupils’ education.”
According to government statistics, one in four schools is converting each day, as it aims for more schools to be run financially independently.
Under the status the school can adapt the curriculum – so long as it is broad and balanced while still teaching the National Curriculum’s core subjects Maths, Science, English and ICT at relevant key stages.
Academies are accountable directly to the Secretary of State instead of to the local authority– meaning they still have Ofsted inspections.
Mr Hines said the change will allow the chance for a nursery to be included on site.
He added: “But it’s not a done deal. It’s very much open to consultation. It’s then a question of the decision being made by the governors, the Diocese of Portsmouth and the Department for Education.
“This is not about sudden change or being in isolation to other schools. We’ll still be working closely with other schools and the Diocese.
“We just believe it’s in the best interest in this school to become academy status.
“If you’re not a current or past parent of the school, but have got the best interest of the children in the community at heart, then we want to hear from you.”
Mr Hines said a change in name is being considered from Hook-with-Warsash School to Hook-with-Warsash Academy, but that with any decision made it will still remain as part of the Church of England.
The consultation deadline is 12noon on April 16. If the plan gets approval the status will change from September 1.
For more details visit www.warsash.hants.sch.uk/academy or email your view to hookacademy@yahoo.com.