WE have yet to be entirely convinced by the arguments for Academy schools.

The Government has made very clear that this is the way things are going, however. And for the York secondary school formerly known as Canon Lee, Academisation is at the heart of plans for improvement.

It seems crazy therefore that the school’s conversion to the Vale of York Academy Trust should have been held up by something as silly as council red tape and indecision.

Yet that’s exactly what happened. The school was due to become an Academy on January 1. It was ready to be handed over by the council to the Hope Learning Trust. But the council backed away from handing over the former Clifton Without Primary School as well, which since 2011 had been used as Canon Lee’s art block.

The council was considering selling off the Clifton Without site instead - even though it offered the only safe way to the Vale of York Academy for children from Rawcliffe.

According to Vale of York principal Helen Dowds, the dithering put the school’s future on a knife-edge.

We’re glad to see therefore that a compromise has now been reached. The council will hand over part of the contested land so that Rawcliffe children can get to school, and will sell off the rest.

That seems sensible. So why did it take so long?

At one point, Canon Lee went into special measures. It has made real progress since Mrs Dowds took over last September however. Hopefully, now, as Vale of York Academy, it can renew the process of becoming the great school its children deserve.