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The borough's education supremo has backed the two sponsors set to oversee a radical change in schools after concerns were raised about their suitability.

Last week it was revealed a massive cash sum, thought to be at least £82million, will pour into the borough's education system with Hampton Community College (HCC), Shene School and Whitton School earmarked to become academies, independent, all-ability state schools supported by sponsors.

Kunskapsskolan, which runs around 30 schools in Sweden, has been lined up to work with HCC and Whitton with not-for-profit education foundation Edutrust linking up with Shene. However, Councillor Geoffrey Samuel, deputy leader of Richmond Conservatives, has expressed reservations about the sponsors.

He feared HCC and Whitton would end up as guinea pigs as Kunskapsskolan had no experience of the English schools system and no understanding of the national curriculum.

He also raised concerns about Edutrust and their lack of experience in schools outside inner city areas and said he wanted reassurances Shene would not just become a school for children from Wandsworth and Hammersmith.

"We support this in principle," he said. "We are in favour of academies but we would prefer they looked for different sponsors."

Councillor Malcolm Eady, Richmond Council cabinet member for education and children's services, said Edutrust were selected for Shene because they wanted to encourage more borough children to attend. He pledged a consultation with parents at all three schools to make sure everyone was aware of the changes.

11:50am Friday 28th March 2008

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