TEACHERS in Lancashire have slammed Conservative plans to impose new headteachers on schools deemed to be “coasting”.

On Monday, David Cameron said schools deemed to ‘require improvement’ by Ofsted, a category that covers many in East Lancashire, would be forced to become academies and take on new leadership if his party is in government after the election.

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Academies are funded directly from central government and lie outside the control of local councils.

Simon Jones, the county’s representative in the National Union of Teachers, and a governor at Cedar Primary School in Blackburn, said: “The government is on a mission to break-up state education and there will be significant opposition to this from most of our schools. Ofsted inspections are already high stakes and this would put even more pressure on.”

The Conservatives’ plan also includes hundreds of new ‘free schools’ by 2020. These are similar to academies, but not borne out of existing council-run schools, and can be set up by groups of parents, businesses and religious or voluntary groups, but funded directly by central government.

Mr Jones said Cedars Primary, in Hawthorne Street, recently rated as ‘good’ by Ofsted, has been adversely affected by the nearby Olive School, which was opened by Tauheedul Free Schools in 2013, as its intake for reception has almost halved this year, affecting its funding.

But Dawn Forshaw, headteacher at Burnley High School, a new free school which opened last year, welcomed Mr Cameron’s speech. She said: “Things are going incredibly well since we opened in September and our children are making great progress.

“I think it’s great news from David Cameron, because the free school model appears to be working well. We are seeing more variety in how schools are run and we shouldn’t be saying it’s all one or the other.”

Her school in Padiham Road, not yet rated by Ofsted, currently has 35 pupils, but is expecting another 90 in September.

Mr Cameron said in his speech: “At the moment, schools that are failing are taken over by new leadership and reopened as academies.

“We’re going to make that the case for coasting schools - ones that are said to ‘require improvement’.

“Because, for us, an ‘all right’ education is not good enough for our children. What this means is thousands more schools potentially being overhauled and compelled to give their pupils a good or a great education.”