THE headteacher of the first primary school in Kirklees to become an academy has said the move has saved jobs.

Pat Thompson has secured five posts at Lindley Junior School by moving out of Kirklees Council’s influence.

The East Street school is now funded directly by the Government and operates outside local authority control.

Miss Thompson said the move gave the school greater control over its budget – allowing five learning support jobs to be saved.

“Becoming an academy allows us to be in control of our destiny,’’ she said.

“We believe we can make better choices about how to spend the money that’s given for Lindley pupils.

“We’ve been able to give permanent substantive contracts to a number of our support team who were previously on short-term contracts.

“Those staff would have lost their jobs at the end of August.”

Lindley Junior School, which educates 486 children aged between seven and 11, became an academy on Saturday.

But Miss Thompson said that – unlike other schools which had made the switch – there would be no name change.

“You won’t find the name ‘academy’ popping up in the school’s title,” she said.

“Those schools which have changed their names have tended to be the ones who needed a fresh start.

“For us, it’s about continuity. The ethos is the same, the values are the same, the focus on the quality of teaching is the same.”

Earlier this year, four concerned mothers asked Kirklees to investigate the school’s switch to an academy after concerns that parents were not being properly consulted on the move.

Miss Thompson said: “We understand that groups of parents were worried. We did our best, we organised meetings within schools, we organised one-to-one meetings with governors.

We did everything we were required to do and we went beyond that.”

The academy will have the same rules on admission as the old junior school.

Miss Thompson added:“We think the admission criteria are fair. The Priority Admission Area will remain the same.”

The headteacher added that residents who oppose building 300 new homes on nearby Lindley Moor were “absolutely right” to point out that more housing would mean more pressure on the area’s schools.

But she added: “In the long-term a school is able to serve its community.”

Becoming an academy will not alter the way the headteacher’s salary is decided.

Miss Thompson said: “I don’t foresee any increase in salary. This is not about making the job bigger and better.

“I do this job because I love the opportunity to make a difference to children.”

And Miss Thompson believes becoming an academy will give the school more freedom to achieve that.

“There are some things which came from the council as directives where there was an element of direction.

“We can listen to the advice but we can choose not to take it.”

School governor John Wilson added that Lindley Juniors was now deciding how to fund certain services.

“Some services we have to organise ourselves. But quite a lot of them we’re buying back from Kirklees, such as payroll services.”