NORTH-EAST teachers and education officials tonight welcomed the Government's U-turn on forcing all schools in England to become academies.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has dropped the plans after a backlash against proposals to take schools out of local authority control by 2022.

Ministers still hope that a large number of schools will choose to convert to academies, but the plan is now an "aspiration" rather than a compulsory policy, the Department for Education (DfE) said.

Jed Gargan, headteacher of Aycliffe Village Primary School, near Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, who quit in protest at the policy, said he will now “seriously consider” withdrawing his resignation in light of today's news.

He hit the headlines last month after writing a letter to parents about increasingly difficult SATS exams and said the academisation proposal would do nothing to improve educational performance.

Reacting to today's statement, he said: “Clearly the announcement was an unnecessary one because there’s no evidence that academies out-perform good state schools so I see it as a very positive step.

“Now we need to keep working to ask the government to backtrack on the unrealistic SATs this year.”

Mr Gargan said he had had support from teachers all over the world.

Cllr Craig Hannaway, Cabinet Member for Children at Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, said: “A week is a long time in politics, particularly as we opposed academisation at full council on Thursday.

"We are pleased with the news that the government has backed down. This will bring a sigh of relief to many teachers, parents and all those who value their community schools.”

Tom Blenkinsop, Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, welcomed the U-turn and said: “There is little evidence that academies raise standards, especially for primary schools.

"Different schools have different priorities and it would be wrong for the government to force them all it to the one size fits all academy route.”

Mike Parker, Director of Schools NorthEast, which represents 1,250 schools across the region, said: “The past few weeks have been nothing short of shambolic. We have seen SATS tests thrown into absolute chaos by leaked papers, parental boycotts, a backtracking on reception assessments due to comparability issues that had been flagged to the Government before, and now a U-turn on the most significant element of the education white paper.

"The Department for Education is at risk of becoming the Ministry of Mass Confusion."

The DfE said ministers had listened to feedback from MPs, teachers, school leaders and parents since publishing the proposals in a White Paper.

Officials stressed the Government was still committed to seeing all schools becoming academies, but new laws forcing the "blanket conversion" of all schools will no longer be necessary.

Mrs Morgan said: "I am today reaffirming our determination to see all schools become academies. However, having listened to the feedback from Parliamentary colleagues and the education sector we will now change the path to reaching that goal.

"By focusing our efforts on those schools most at risk of failing young people, and encouraging 'good' and 'outstanding' schools to seize the opportunities of conversion, we will ensure the continued growth of the academy programme, empowering frontline heads and school leads, and transforming even more children's education."