WITH New Labour and the Conservative Party both supporting academies it must make those who are in favour have cause to rethink their ideas.

If academies are so good then why is every state school not being replaced by one?

The Conservatives' education spokesperson says that his party's "ambition is, in effect, grammar schools for allserving the whole pupil cohort, not just the top 20 per cent as in the past".

In London, Dr Elizabeth Sidwell, chief executive of an academy, says that it takes all its pupils from a three mile radius and "the pupils are picked in quotas according to ability".

So now we know. Academies will be like grammar schools and the parents of children living outside their catchment area will try to move into it just like the old grammar schools. If the academy wants to select from the whole borough then clearly not every child can "get in" and those who do not do so will be left in the old state system.

John W Antill, Darlington.