A ROW was brewing last night over "Big Brother" plans to install security cameras in the classrooms of a North-East school.

The Vardy Foundation, which is sponsoring and running the £22m King's Academy in Coulby Newham, Middlesbrough, said the cameras were for teachers' own protection.

But unions said that staff at King's, one of the Government's flagship city academies which is due to open in September, would see the cameras as an intrusion.

The Vardy Foundation, set up by car dealership millionaire and evangelical Christian Sir Peter Vardy, has put £2m into the academy, which will replace two schools which have been closed.

King's will take a strict approach to uniforms and discipline and the closed-circuit television (CCTV) system was intended to reinforce good behaviour.

The original intention was to limit the cameras to music rooms but then the foundation decided to extend the scheme around the whole school.

Sir Peter's brother, David, who is the foundation's projects director, said: "We decided, for the security of the teachers against unwanted accusations, that having closed- circuit television in these spaces was something to be desired.

"Teachers working with us in Middlesbrough have been involved and informed of what is going on."

But Malcolm Wilkinson, executive member of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, who covers Teesside, said the cameras were "very much like Big Brother, with school managers and head teachers spying on teachers in their classrooms".

He said: "This really is the thin end of the wedge. I think teachers are going to take a lot of reassuring that they weren't being spied on. It is a complete intrusion of privacy for both teachers and pupils in the classroom.

"There is a place for CCTV in schools, sadly, because of the number of intruders they get, but I have serious concerns about them actually being inside classrooms."

Thirty-three academies like King's are planned nationwide, with the Vardy Foundation sponsoring five, including the first, Emmanuel College in Gateshead.

Emmanuel hit the headlines last year when it was revealed that science teachers taught the religious "creationist" theory of the origin of humanity as well as Darwin's theory of evolution.

Mr Vardy said CCTV was already installed in Emmanuel's music rooms, where pupils were taught by teachers not on the school's main staff.

He denied that cameras were being installed in every classroom in King's so that principal Nigel McQuoid, who also heads Emmanuel, could spy on staff.

"If the head wanted to spy on teachers, all he has to do is walk down the corridor. We didn't need to install CCTV to watch teachers teaching," he added.

NASUWT general secretary Eamonn O'Kane said: "I think many teachers will have serious misgivings because they will find it an intrusion of their working space and feel they are being monitored."

John Bangs, head of education at the National Union of Teachers, said: "The existence of CCTV cameras in classrooms is no guarantee of security. The critical issue is, can the teacher get the support they need when they need it, not whether there is a camera watching what is going on."

Mr Vardy said he hoped the row would not overshadow the fact that the North-East was getting a "state-of-the-art school".

King's will specialise in business and enterprise and will have nearly one computer for every two pupils. The use of CCTV is expected to safeguard the expensive computer equipment.