The Schools Minister has visited a Westcountry primary school to discuss the benefits of becoming an academy.

Lord Hill was at Blackpool C of E School at Liverton, near Newton Abbot yesterday, which recently converted away from town hall control. Almost 60 per cent of Devon's secondary schools and 10 per cent of its primaries are now academies or in the process of converting.

The status takes schools out of local authority hands and allows head teachers and governors to have control over spending and other decisions.

Lord Hill said: "Many schools in Devon have taken the opportunity to become academies in the last 18 months.

"I want to make sure that all schools – and particularly primaries – have the information they need to decide whether or not academy status is for them. That is why I am here today."

Blackpool primary is linked to four other schools in the area.

Executive head teacher Paul Lloyd Jones said: "By converting to a group of academies within the Primary Academies Trust, we will be able to target resources; intellectual, physical and financial to improve outcomes for all children in every school."

Despite a surge in uptake, the academies programme is fiercely opposed by unions who claim teachers' pay and conditions will be eroded and some small rural schools will be lost.