The King's School, Tynemouth, to enter state sector

This house now forms part of The King's School, Tynemouth - former pupils include Stan Laurel and Toby Flood. The blue plaque on its wall records that Garibaldi stayed here in 1854 "while visiting Tynemouth to brief local political and industrial leaders on his plans for a unified Italy".

The King's School is in the news this week. As The Journal reports:

One of the North East’s leading private schools will become free to parents next year after the Government approved plans for it to convert to academy status. 

The King’s School in Tynemouth will merge with nearby Priory Primary School to become an all-age, state-funded independent academy. 

The new school, called Kings Priory, is due to open in September 2013 and will be sponsored and operated by the Woodard Academies Trust.

As I blogged last year, such moves - bringing good schools into the state sector - are to be welcomed, but the left is always deeply suspicious of them.

Sure enough, the area's Labour MP is quoted on the Evening Chronicle website expressing concerns about the move.