It is not only staff who should be rightly concerned about the proposed change in status of King's Manor Community College in Shoreham, Boundstone Community College in Lancing and Littlehampton School to academies (The Argus, February 6). Parents, pupils and the local community should also have concerns.

Academies are independent state schools. David Wolfe, a barrister specialising in human rights law, says: "I have 9ft of shelves holding books on education law in this country going right back to the 1944 Act and the protection the law offers to children and parents. None of it applies to academies."

Academies are also excluded from the Freedom of Information Act on the ground that they are not "wholly publicly funded bodies".

Academies are not required to teach the national curriculum.

Concerns have been expressed about faith-based academies teaching creationism as a valid scientific theory.

Sponsors of academies appoint the majority of the governing body. The minimum requirement is for just one elected parent governor.

The Campaign for State Education (www.campaignforstateeducation.

org.uk) is opposed to sponsors being able to effectively "buy" a school and control everything, including who is admitted, what is taught, who is employed, how much they should be paid and how, if at all, community access to what was a community asset is arranged, as well as the values and the ethos of the school.

Further information about campaigns against academies around the country can be found at www.anti academies.org.uk.

I hope that the meeting last week in Worthing was well attended and the teachers campaigning against these academies have the support of parents, pupils and their local communities.

  • Liz Lee, Campaign for State Education Bevendean Avenue Saltdean