Academy conversion is "disruptive"

Since the start of the Coalition Government the number of schools becoming academies in England has risen from around 200 to nearly three thousand.

Ministers say persuading under-performing schools to opt out of council control and take on academy sponsors is an effective way of raising standards.

But in some parts of the country the policy has encountered resistance, with critics claiming that schools are being bullied by the Department of Education to take on academy status.

And now there is evidence Ofsted inspectors have raised concern that the process of academy conversion is disruptive within the schools affected.

BBC education correspondent Luke Walton has been to a school in Lancashire which was earmarked for academy status.