Sir – Your report (March 11) that ‘Schools have been given £62m under the Government’s ‘Building Schools for the Future’ (BSF) programme is indeed good news.

This news does, however, serve to disguise one important and quite disgraceful matter. Prioritisation on this new schools buildings programme is decided on the basis of an index of deprivation factors; when Oxfordshire County Council made their original submission it was of course recognised that Oxford School was among the few secondary schools in Oxfordshire that met the required criteria. Your readers will have noticed that Oxford School is now not on the list of schools being awarded money for new buildings. The county council has confirmed that the reason that Oxford School, has been removed from ‘Building Schools for the Future’ is because it is now on the Academies programme.

This raises the following questions: 1. If Oxford School is not on the list because there is a proposal to shut the school in favour of an academy what does this say about the credibility of any consultation process regarding the academy proposal? Surely the process of consultation on academies is a complete sham as decisions are already being made on the presumption that the school will close.

2. If an outcome of consultation can be that the government takes views into account and rejects the proposal does it mean that the school is deprived of BSF funding?

3. If Oxford School is restored to the BSF programme at a later date, if it remains an LA school, then do the expectations of one of the schools currently on the list stand to be shattered?

Frank Newhofer, Oxford