Sir – Oxfordshire County Council has been successful in securing £62m as part of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme to make substantial improvements to its secondary schools. Frank Newhofer suggests that this news disguises “. . . one important and disgraceful matter” (Letters, March 18).

Nothing is disguised and there is nothing disgraceful about what has happened!

Mr Newhofer asks three questions: Does the absence of Oxford School from the list of BSF schools mean that any consultation about it becoming an academy will be a “sham”?

If the academy proposal is rejected will Oxford School lose out on BSF funding?

If Oxford School does receive BSF funding will another school not get it?

The removal of Oxford School from the proposed BSF programme was on the advice of Partnerships for Schools (PfS), the non-departmental public body responsible for delivering BSF. The removal says nothing about the credibility of any consultation process. The process of seeking academy status and progressing the BSF programme are quite separate.

We have made clear to the DCSF that if Oxford School were not replaced by an academy, then we would wish to see it added to the BSF programme; a clear message that we are not working on the assumption that the academy proposal is a ‘done deal’.

The rejection of the academy proposal would not deprive Oxford School of BSF funding. We would, rather, seek additional funding to enable it to be included in the programme, adding Oxford School to the project rather than substituting it for another. Mr Newhofer’s opposition to an academy is well known.

It is a shame that this preoccupation causes him to see conspiracy where none exists and prevents him from having an objective view about what is likely to be in the best interests of the young people of that community.

Michael Waine, Cabinet member for school improvement, Oxfordshire County Council