TEACHERS are set to walk out of a Liverpool school after it confirmed it is considering becoming an academy.

Childwall College has begun consultation on cutting free from town hall control and converting to a centrally-funded academy.

Academies can set their own terms and conditions and set their own curriculum and often find themselves with increased funding because they are no longer managed by the council.

Headteacher Dewi Phillips said greater control of the purse strings, the chance to invest further in facilities and more flexibility in the curriculum would all be benefits of conversion.

But he said governors had only just begun consultation and all feedback would be considered before any approach to the government was made.

But unions, which oppose academies, believing they take money away from council-run schools, last night confirmed teachers had backed a forthcoming ballot for strike action.

A similar union and parent protest took place last month outside Shorefields College, in Dingle, over its own plans to become an academy.

But Mr Phillips said unions would continue to be fully included in consultation, which runs until June 30, and their fears were unfounded.

On the case for academy status, he added: “We think this is an opportunity to develop the curriculum even more without the constraints presented by the National Curriculum. We are an outstanding school and concerned our ability to develop the curriculum may be restricted under new funding regimes.”

Mr Phillips said the school would not tinker with pay and conditions or “anything which could destroy” staff or pupils’ progression.

But Cathy Fitzgerald-Taher, assistant secretary of Liverpool NUT, said it would be balloting for strike action because “we do not believe they should be jeopardising a good community school through privatisation”.

The NASUWT’s Liverpool secretary Claire Athis also confirmed its members would be balloted.