THE Government has received a flood of applications from schools in the region hoping to become academies.

Ten schools in the North- East and North Yorkshire have applied to become academies in less than a month.

The surge brings the total of schools in the region which have submitted a request, or already made the change, to 43.

Schools becoming academies are taken out of the control of local authorities and given greater control on buying services and managing their budgets.

Although there is officially no direct financial benefit in becoming an academy, it is understood many schools are finding themselves better off.

Great Smeaton Primary School, near Northallerton, North Yorkshire, applied last month and has already had its request approved.

Headteacher Kathryn Bell said the school’s transfer to an academy was not a foregone conclusion, with schools allowed to pull out at any time, but it was something that had been agreed by the whole school community.

She said the school would not officially get more money.

However, she added: “It gives us the remit to spend our budget as we see fit.”

Outstanding schools were invited to apply for academy status last June.

The offer was later extended to special schools and any other school that was performing well.

Of the 43 schools in the region which have applied, or are already academies, more than a quarter are in Darlington.

Darlington Borough Council said the Government was keen to see clusters of schools apply to become academies together.

“Darlington schools have a well-embedded history of collaborative working which has been encouraged and fully supported by the council,” a spokeswoman said.

Peter King, headteacher of the town’s Corporation Road School, is the Darlington branch secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers.

His school has not applied to become an academy. However, he agreed that some of his colleagues were being encouraged by the financial benefits.

He said: “I’ve heard there is more money, but for us there are not enough benefits for us to strongly consider becoming an academy yet.”

Experts say the financial benefits currently available to schools converting to academies will not be around in future years.

Nationally, more than 1,000 schools have applied to become academies.

The following schools have applied to become, or already are, academies: Darlington: Abbey Infant School; Abbey Junior School; Alderman Leach Primary School; Beaumont Hill School; Bishopton Redmarshall CE Primary School; Gurney Pease Primary School; Haughton Community School; Heighington CE Primary School; Hummersknott School and Language College; Hurworth Comprehensive School; Longfield School; Reid Street Primary School; Springfield Primary School; Hermitage School; County Durham: King James I Community Arts College; Park View Community School; Shotton Hall School; Staindrop School and Teesdale School; Hartlepool: Dyke House Sports and Technology College and West Park Primary School; Newcastle: Gosforth High School and Gosforth Junior High School; North Yorkshire: Great Smeaton Community Primary; Harrogate Grammar School; Harrogate High School; Malton School; Norton College; Ripon College; Rossett School and Skipton Girls’ High School; South Craven School and St Aidan’s CE High School; Northumberland: Ashington Central First School; Meadowdale Middle School and The Duchess’s Community High School; Redcar and Cleveland: Eston Park School; South Tyneside: Whitburn CESchool; Sunderland: Bexhill Primary School; Redby Primary School and Town End Primary School; York: Archbishop Holgate’s School and Manor CE Voluntary Aided School.