A further eight Birmingham schools are set to leave local authority control to become academies.
Seven city primary schools and one secondary have been given the green light to convert to academy status.
The decision comes just days after Prime Minister David Cameron said he wanted 400 primaries to become academies within a year.
More than half of Birmingham secondary schools and almost a quarter of primary schools have moved to or are in the process of becoming academies.
The latest primary schools given the go-ahead to become academies following a Birmingham City Council cabinet meeting are Mansfield Greenfield Community Primary in Aston, Moor Green Primary School, Ridpool Primary School in Kitts Green and Tame Valley Primary, Bromford, Reaside Junior School in Rednal, St John’s CE Primary, Sparkhill, and St George’s CE Primary, Ladywood,
Lordswood Boys School, a 700-pupil secondary on the Hagley Road, was also approved.
Mr Cameron outlined controversial plans last week to double the Government’s original target of creating 200 primary academies by 2013.
He said: “The driving mission for this government is to build an aspiration nation, where we unlock and unleash the promise in all our people. A first-class education system is absolutely central to that vision. We have seen some excellent progress with our reforms, including turning 200 of the worst performing primary schools into sponsored academies, and opening more academies in the last two years than the previous government opened in a decade.
“Time and time again we have seen how academies, with their freedom to innovate, inspire and raise standards are fuelling aspirations and helping to spread success. So now we want to go further, faster, with 400 more under-performing primary schools paired up with a sponsor and either open or well on their way to becoming an academy by the end of next year.
“It is simply not good enough that some children are left to struggle in failing schools, when they could be given the chance to shine.”
Academies, sponsored by partners such as businesses or universities, were introduced by Labour, but only secondary schools could apply for academy status before the coalition government took office.
At the previous General Election, there were 203 academies – now there are nearly 2,500 nationwide, with more than 800 in the pipeline.
Ministers also want to spend up to £10 million to develop new sponsor links, but the move towards more academies has been branded “destructive nonsense” by Northfield Labour MP Richard Burden.
Mr Burden claimed the Government was “more obsessed with structures than what is right for children”.
Academies are free to set their own pay and conditions for staff, and change the lengths of terms and school days.
They are no longer committed to buying services from the council, such as school dinners and catering, outdoor activities and even school place admissions services. In July, council education chief Coun Brigid Jones outlined plans to form a co-operative agreement between willing local academies and the authority.
Head teachers and members of the local authority met last month to discuss a way to ‘‘reinvent’’ the local authority in the wake of scores of city schools becoming academies.
The authority discussed a new co-operative trust to persuade head teachers to join and commit to buying support services from the city council.
