A HIGH-flying school in the region is proof that the Government is wrong to force 1,000 schools to become academies, Labour says.

Wellfield Community School, in Wingate, County Durham, was praised in the Commons for its success while remaining under the wing of a local education authority.

The new Education and Adoption is expected to lead to around 1,000 such ‘maintained’ schools being converted to independent academies over the next five years.

So-called ‘coasting schools’ will be forced to switch, although ministers have yet to set out their definition of schools which are failing to achieve full potential.

And new powers will speed up the process of changing a failing school's leadership, by curbing the powers of governors and parents to "obstruct" takeovers.

But, speaking during debate on the Bill, Tristram Hunt, Labour’s education spokesman, pointed to Wellfield Community School as evidence that ministers are obsessed with academies.

Mr Hunt said such a switch was “one option for effective intervention in failing schools”, with evidence that the poorest pupils made faster progress.

But he added: “The reality is that some of the fastest improving schools in the country are maintained schools, particularly in the primary sector.

“Schools such as the Wellfield Community School, which I was delighted to visit with my honourable friend the member for Sedgefield, Phil Wilson, went from special measures to good without converting.

“Academisation is not always the answer. Inspections show that eight per cent of primary sponsored academies and 14 per cent of secondaries are currently rated inadequate.”

The comments were echoed by Mr Wilson, who said, later: “Wellfield is an exceptional school, showing there are good maintained schools and good academies.”

“I’m not against academy status, but where schools are working well they should be left to get on with working well.”

But, in a speech this week, David Cameron vowed that schools failing to realise their students' full potential will be given three years to improve - or turned into academies.

Even some schools that had previously been rated "good" by watchdog Ofsted could be forced to switch if they were judged to be selling pupils short.

Mr Cameron said: “They are giving children 'just enough' to avoid falling beneath our floor standards. But frankly 'just enough' isn't good enough for my children, and it shouldn't be for yours.”