Speedy process to open ‘free schools’

UK – Twenty-four free schools have been set up in record time to meet the urgent demand of UK parents for a different type of education to benefit local children.

Seventeen primary schools, five secondary schools and two all-age free schools will open throughout this month – just 10 to 15 months after submitting initial plans to the Department for Education.

They are part of the government’s drive to raise education standards across the country and tackle educational disadvantage. The schools are primarily concentrated in areas of deprivation – half of the schools are located in the most deprived 30 per cent of communities.

They are state-funded and set up by teachers, charities, education experts and parents.

Under the coalition government’s radical new plans, free schools will be able to prioritise the most disadvantaged children in their school admissions arrangements. There will be also a greater incentive for the schools to attract pupils that are most in need of high-quality education.

Education secretary, Michael Gove, said: “Too many children are being failed by fundamental flaws in our education system. The weakest schools are concentrated in our poorest towns and cities, and we are plummeting down the international education league tables.

By freeing up teachers and trusting local communities to decide what is best, our reforms will help to raise standards for children in all schools.”

Over 320 groups applied to open free schools in the first application window.

In the past, it normally took between three and five years to set up a maintained school, with the few that were able to be set up by parents taking up to nine years.