Another Barnsley school is failing its pupils according to Ofsted education inspectors.

Darfield All Saints' primary is the sixth to be put in special measures - Ofsted's most serious category of failing schools - since January last year. Headteacher Julie Jones has been on sick leave since Christmas, and the governing body has been sacked. It will be replaced by a board appointed by the council following the latest Ofsted report which says the school is 'providing an unacceptable standard of education'.

Meanwhile parents of pupils at St Mary's primary in Barnsley are today being told that the school is planning to convert to an academy. Headteacher Craig Lee, told the Chronicle that he and the majority of his staff and governors were in favour of academy status, meaning the school would be independent, funded directly from the government and free of local authority control.

The National Union of Teachers is opposed to academies. Barnsley secretary Roy Bowser, in a letter to the Chronicle this week, said: "Currently being touted as, ‘schools remodelling’, it is in fact the headlong dash towards the fragmentation and, ultimately, privatisation of education."

Mr Bowser's letter can be read in full at: http://www.barnsley-chronicle.co.uk/letters/article/3971/privatisation-of-education