STAFF from three schools went on strike yesterday against plans to convert one into a company-run academy.

Peacehaven Community, Peacehaven Heights Primary and Telscombe Cliffs Primary schools all shut yesterday as staff, parents, and pupils marched through the town.

About 250 protesters set up four picket lines in Peacehaven against plans to convert Peacehaven Community School, run by East Sussex County Council, into an academy owned by private company Swale.

Phil Clarke, secretary of the Peacehaven branch of the National Education Union, said the community had “spoken up” about the planned academy conversion.

He said: “It is time for the governing bodies of these three schools to listen to the staff, parents and wider community and commit to remain as community schools.”

Amanda Tams, whose child goes to Telscombe Cliffs, said she didn’t want school money going to private companies. She said: “We know academies don’t improve results but have repeatedly resulted in less money for the front line as it is taken to pay big chief executive wages.

“We want our children to be the priority, not Swale or any other academy chain’s expansion plans.”

Lloyd Russell-Moyle, MP for Brighton Kemptown, said academies were “robbery”.

He said: “When Labour gets in we will cancel the academy programs which wastes money on BMWs for managers and doesn’t spend on assistants for our schools.

“Academisation is robbery, it’s robbery of community assets which have been built up over generations, it’s robbery of a future of education for our children and it’s robbery of a system which protects special educational needs.”

If Swale, which has had a role in running Peacehaven Community School since 2015, is given complete control of the secondary school, it will be able to decide its admissions policy and what its pupils study without council input.

The company could also hire who it wishes, even if they were not qualified to teach.

East Sussex County Council hopes to convert the school into an academy within months.

But governors of Peacehaven Heights Primary and Telscombe Cliffs Primary schools are also considering academy plans.

A council spokesman said: “We have been working closely with Peacehaven Heights Primary School and Telscombe Cliffs Primary School to improve outcomes for all pupils.”