STAFF at one of East Lancashire’s top schools are ‘fighting’ moves by bosses towards making it an academy.

More than 60 staff have written expressing ‘grave’ concerns to the chair of governors at Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School about the idea.

They said they feared for the ‘children, parents, local community, standards of education and the long-term financial viability of the school’.

Unions said the strength of feeling against the proposals was just the ‘tip of the iceberg’.

Headteacher Alan Porteous confirmed that the governing body was ‘exploring’ the possibility of converting the school into an academy but had not made a decision.

The staff letter said: “As a hard-working and deeply committed staff, we are writing to you to express our concern about any move to make Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School an academy.

“We feel privileged to teach in a unique school that continues to provide “a passport out of poverty” for many of our pupils.

“We do not believe a school run for profit could ever be in the best interest of our pupils, our staff or our high standard of education, and for that reason we feel it is crucial we convey our disapproval in the hope it will be taken into account in all future discussions.”

Academies are funded by central government and are free from local authority control.

They are in charge of their own budget, curriculum and also admissions.

But staff at the school said converting to an academy was a threat to the school and not in its best interests.

The letter said: “We firmly believe that becoming an academy is not in the best interests of any of the above groups and anything that poses real threat to the continuing success of Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School should be avoided at all costs.”

Year-on-year Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School is named in the 100 top performing schools at GCSE level and often has a 100 or 99 per cent pass rates.

National executive member and Lancashire representative of the NASUWT, John Girdley said: “We will fight this. More than 60 staff signed the letter but that is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Lancashire secretary for the NUT, Ken Cridland said: “We feel there is growing evidence that academies could be run by large corporations that are not local or democratic.”

Mr Porteous added: “The governing body of Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School are currently engaged in a fact finding process, exploring in detail the potential implications of academy conversion, in order to make an informed decision about whether they wish to make an application to the Department for Education.

“At this stage, absolutely no decision has been taken, and the governors may decide that they do not wish to pursue conversion at all.”

Alyson Barnes, leader of Rossendale Council, said: “I am staggered that there are so many objections from teaching staff.”