Warwickshire County Council (WCC) has confirmed academies in its county face no restrictions on the numbers of pupils they enrol from Daventry.
Figures for the current academic year reveal one in three pupils from primary schools in and around Daventry passed over DSLV and Parker E-ACT Academy to leave the town for their education.
Many pupils go to Guilsborough School or Campion School in Bugbrooke, but the greatest beneficiary of the ‘brain drain’ is Southam College, which this year welcomed 56 new secondary school pupils from the Daventry area.
WCC confirmed there are no restrictions in place on independent academies currently benefitting from the student exodus. Until Ashlawn School became an academy there were strict admission rules for schools in Rugby.
The current principal of The Parker E-ACT Academy, Andrew Mackereth, has been left frustrated by the issue as he sees pupils getting on to buses near his school to take them to other schools.
He said: “I find it disappointing to see children from Daventry going to other schools.
“I think it can be incredibly disrupting in the transition from primary to secondary. If there are six children in a friendship group at primary school and the parents of five of those children have the wealth to be able to send their children outside the area, then that one child is left and is going to struggle to settle into secondary school.
“If a child from Warwickshire for example wants to go to school in Rugby but is being pushed out because the place goes to a child from Daventry then I find that perverse. I would call on the local authorities to do much more.
“But I don’t want to cast stones and I know that we have to get our house in order.
“I would hope that the community will bare with us while we do that and then we can compete on a level playing field with other schools.”