SCHOOL staff in East Sussex are considering strike action against the academisation of their school.

National Education Union (NEU) members at Peacehaven Community School are balloting on whether they should fight against plans to turn the local school into an academy.

East Sussex County Council intends to hand over control of the schools to the Swale Academies Trust, which runs 16 schools in the region.

However, the NEU has pointed out that if the council hands over control of the school to the trust, it will still be paying for the private finance initiative (PFI) bill, which helped build the school in 2001, until 2026.

NEU district secretary Phil Clarke said: “This is in effect a taxpayer subsidy of the Swale Academies Trust and our members have signalled very strongly to us they do not have faith in Swale being able to sustain improvements in the school.”

The union believes that before any decision is taken about the future of Peacehaven Community School, the school’s interim executive board (IEB) of governors should be dissolved and reconstituted as an elected body.

Mr Clarke added: “The academy conversion will hand over the school to an unaccountable private chain and this decision should rest with elected governors. It’s time for East Sussex County Council to give the parents and Peacehaven community a say and hold elections for a governing body.

“The community who campaigned so hard to get a secondary school should decide its future.”

An East Sussex County Council spokesman said a consultation revealed “very strong support from parents for the continued involvement of Swale Academies Trust.

“It remains the view of the local authority and the IEB that this is the right course of action to secure strong leadership and continued improvements at the school.”