A UNION representing teachers in Gloucestershire said it has concerns about county schools applying for academy status.

The move to become academies is being championed by the coalition Government in a bid to give schools more freedom over their curriculum and a 10 per cent increase in funding.

Schools which become academies will be independent from Gloucestershire County Council.

But John Pemberthy, Gloucestershire's NUT representative, said he has fears over funding.

He said: "I think while it might benefit a few schools to go for academy status, they shouldn't rush into it because they don't know how much money they will get or what the academy bill will say. It will also drain money from the council and from the schools that desperately need it."

Although Ian Kellie, headteacher at Sir Thomas Rich's School in Longlevens, which is one of the schools to have expressed an interest in becoming an academy, said these fears are unfounded.

He said: "The Department of Education has told us how much we will get. I would never wish our school to benefit at the cost of any other school or any other pupil. The added funding we would receive is money Shire Hall (Gloucestershire County Council's headquarters) spends on our behalf and the level of support that the local authority is able to give schools is not strong.

"And in my view the best support they could give is to give all schools the money they spend on their behalf."

Gloucester is set to get its own academy in September, with a merger of Bishops' College and Central Technology School.

Funding of the new £20 million academy in Gloucester faces uncertainty after the Government moved to slash a £55 billion schools building scheme.

It is among the projects to be reviewed on a "case-by-case basis" in the coming weeks according to officials at the Department for Education.

At the House of Commons this week, Gloucester's Conservative MP Richard Graham said any problems which had arisen were down to the former Labour administration.

He said the difficulties faced over the planned merger were the result of "a very crude consultation and a very tight deadline" imposed by the previous Labour Education Secretary Ed Balls.

He said Mr Balls had dispatched his 'henchman' Graham Badman who had decided to close one of the schools.

Plans drawn up in response to the Badman report sparked a furious row in the county, not least with objections to the length of consultation period.