IN RESPONSE to the article on academies (Wednesday, March 23), as a teacher, my experience working in an academy was one of bullying, intimidation and hierarchy.

Most days I would stay at the school until about 6pm, with meetings and events and some evenings, until 9pm with other public events, training or meetings.

There was no option but to ‘turn up,’ otherwise the outcome could be potential job loss.

Planning and preparation time and lunch breaks (that teachers are given in their contracts) would be consumed with other responsibilities, such as revision sessions for assessments or meetings.

So generally, I would get home, have about an hour to eat and then spend the evening planning, marking and doing assessments, reports, targets and statistical data until about midnight.

I was working on average 15 hours a day and there was no way I could continue like this for the sake of my physical and mental health and for my relationships with my son and husband, so I left this role last year.

Within three months of working at this academy, I watched new teachers in their first year fall under the stress of the intense work load and bullying from managers.

One young woman (who would have made a fantastic teacher) decided it was a mistake and told me she went home every night and cried and forced herself to return each morning.

She said that the job wasn’t about teaching: "It was just for those who were prepared to ditch their ethical principles and work their way through the ranks to become a department head, or head teacher on a higher wage."

She decided to get through her first year, get her teaching qualification and find another career.

The chief inspector of England’s schools states that there is a ‘teacher brain drain’ in the UK, with teachers leaving to teach abroad.

Last year, Ofsted announced that 17,000 more children are at inadequate academies and free schools than in council-controlled schools and they found that only 37 per cent of academies have improved their Ofsted rating after converting to an academy.

There are several issues with this announcement about academies (academies are semi-private schools).

If all schools are academies, businesses and charities will only invest in a school if they feel they will get a return for their money and they will not want to invest in schools in poorer, less-privileged areas of the country where they will not get a return on their investment.

These schools will be forced to close, while the successful schools will attract more able children and investment.

These successful schools will be full and unable to take children from areas where academies close.

The ‘elephant in the room’ and issue nobody wants to discuss with the academies debate is, where this will lead?

We need to seriously consider the prospect that in the very near future, many of our children could be excluded from the education system and that this opens up the opportunity for a neo-Victorian society and economy.

Name and address supplied