TEACHERS have slammed plans for an East End school to be taken over by a trust of university chiefs in an attempt to improve its exam results. Union members say that St Paul s Way Community School should remain under control of Tower Hamlets council rat

TEACHERS have slammed plans for an East End school to be taken over by a trust of university chiefs in an attempt to improve its exam results.

Union members say that St Paul's Way Community School should remain under control of Tower Hamlets council rather than become a National Challenge Trust School.

The move would mean the school in Bow, where only 23 per cent of kids received five A*-C GCSE grades last year, would be handed over together with its staff and assets to an "educational partner" that could be a university or another school.

The Town Hall says the move would give a "failing" school the chance to benefit from university expertise and the school would operate with a governing body which would include community and staff representatives as well as parents.

But the Tower Hamlets Secretary for the National Union of Teachers, Alex Kenny said: "There is no evidence that trust schools deliver any better for children than community schools and instead could tear at the fabric of a locally planned and delivered education service, such as we have in Tower Hamlets."

A public consultation giving parents and staff the chance to raise their concerns about the move is running until October 26.