More than 100 free schools applications approved
Michael Gove gives green light to 102 more free schools that will create more than 50,000 extra school places when full.
Education Secretary Michael Gove speaks to students in a maths class at Greenwich Free School.
Education Secretary Michael Gove today approved 102 new free school applications to open in 2014 and beyond, delivering around 50,000 new school places.
There are already 81 open free schools, with a further 109 aiming to open in September and beyond. In total, all currently approved free schools would deliver 130,000 new school places when full.
Free schools are state-funded schools independent of local authority control. They are run by teachers - not local or central government bureaucrats. They have the freedom to decide the length of the school day and term, the curriculum, and how they reward their teachers and spend their money.
Many of the free schools approved today will be based in areas of deprivation, or where there is a shortage of school places, like the schools open or approved before them:
- 72% of all free school approvals and 91% of primary approvals will go towards meeting basic need. Ninety per cent of mainstream schools (excluding 14 to 19 schools) are in areas of basic need or deprivation
- More than half (64%) of the mainstream schools are expected to be located in the 50% most deprived communities in the country. 44% of the mainstream schools announced today are expected to be located in the 30% most deprived communities in the country
Read more... (DfE - 22 May)