TWO secondary schools have moved a step closer to being taken out of local authority control after governors voted in favour of the controversial plan.

A last-ditch effort by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) to persuade governors at Norlington School for Boys to reject the council-backed proposal before a decisive meeting on Wednesday failed, with a vote of five to one in favour of trustees taking over the school.

But the NUT are angry with the outcome, insisting about half of the governors did not attend the meeting.

Under the government’s Building Schools for the Future program, a trust led by the Institute of Education will be set up to run Norlington and the newly established George Mitchell All-Through School.

NUT members, who have staged a number of strikes at the school in protest at the plan, insist the move will remove local accountability and not benefit pupils.

They are also supported by members of the University and College Union at the Institute of Education.

But the council insist the performance of the trust will be closely monitored and schools will prosper with new expertise at management level.

Campaigners’ hopes now rest with George Mitchell governors, who will vote on the plan on Tuesday.

Previous reports suggested that board members at the Farmer Road school supported the proposal, but the NUT say opinion has now shifted and members remain hopeful that the plan could yet be scuppered.

Union members and campaigners turned out in force to lobby Norlington governors before the vote.

Waltham Forest branch secretary Rinaldo Frezzato said: “We had about 80 people at the lobby – it was a very good turn out.

“We had University and College Union banners and we had people along from the Institute of Education.”

Mr Frezzato said the fact that a number governors did not attend the decisive meeting was “an absolute disgrace”.

“They should not be allowed to do that,” he added. The plan to incorporate the trust schools on a new leisure complex on part of Leyton Sports Ground, off High Road, has also prompted anger.

Campaigners fear a loss of valuable green space will have a detrimental effect on the local community.