THE headteacher of Ponteland High School is confident that academy plans will not affect the school’s hopes for a new building, but questions hang over how changes would affect middle school students.

At a meeting of Ponteland Town Council, councillors raised concerns about whether proposals for six Ponteland schools to form a multi-academy trust would affect a recently-approved planning application for a new combined schools and leisure campus in the town.

Ponteland High School, Darras Hall Primary, Heddon St. Andrews CE Primary, Ponteland Primary, Richard Coates CE School and Belsay Primary are in consultation over whether to form the MAT.

This would mean they have a single board of directors, and would be funded directly from the Government.

At the meeting, Coun. Sue Johnson raised concerns over the plans, asking: “Why would Northumberland County Council want to pay to build a school which is an academy?”

But headteacher of Ponteland High School, Kieran McGrane, said he was still hopeful about the plans for a new school.

“I am not sure whether the MAT will make a significant difference to that in terms of the new Conservative leadership,” he said.

“It is the current Conservative government supporting academies so we would suspect they would be supportive.”

With Ponteland schools completing the conversion from a three-tier to a two-tier education system as of September, Ponteland Middle School last year secured academy status on its own, and is not included in the MAT plans. Stamfordham First/Primary School is also absent from the consultation.

A group of parents, POPs (Parents of Ponteland Schools), opposed to the two-tier system, are concerned about how children at the middle school will be affected.