London's first Mayoral Academies opened

London Mayor Boris Johnson has officially opened the capital's first two Mayoral Academies, in east London.

Mr Johnson said the rebranded secondary schools would help boost education standards in deprived parts of London.

But fellow Tory London Assembly member Andrew Boff said the money spent on rebranding the schools should have been used to help the unemployed.

The Aylward Academy in Enfield and Nightingale Academy in Edmonton are the first two of 10 planned academies.

The schools will get extra support from the mayor's London Development Agency.

'Vanity projects'

Mr Johnson said he would "make sure every student coming from Aylward Academy has access to training or to a job".

"That's a guarantee," he added.

"The money that's being used to open these academies should be targeted towards people who are currently unemployed and in need of skills training," said Mr Boff.

Meanwhile, Labour London Assembly member Len Duvall said: "These are just vanity projects that sound good for a short while, but long term what's really going to be the impact?"

The Aylward Academy was previously known as Gladys Aylward School and the Nightingale Academy was formerly Turin Grove School.