Time runs out today for parents with free school ambitions in 2012

TODAY is the deadline for parents wanting to submit bids to open their own flagship free schools next year under the Government’s education reforms.

New tougher selection criteria have been created by Ministers for anyone who wants to launch their own state funded school from September 2012. When the Government launched the idea of free schools being set up by groups of parents, bids could be made at any time and did not have to provide significant details.

The first wave of free schools will open in September including up to four in Yorkshire.

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Anyone wanting to open free schools from 2012 will now be asked to produce detailed reports demonstrating parental demand, the type of education their school will provide along with evidence of their own “capacity and capability”. Shortlisted applicants will also be interviewed by panels of Department for Education (DfE) officials, financial experts, education advisers and head teachers.

Under the old system there had been at least 32 applications to set up free schools from the Yorkshire region.

Of these only six were given initial acceptance. Three bids have had their business case accepted: Batley Grammar, which is an existing private school bidding to join the state sector; King’s Science Academy involving a plan for a new secondary school in Bradford led by teacher Sajid Hussain; and the Birkenshaw, Birstall and Gomersal Parents Alliance’s (BBGPA) plan for a new secondary school in Birkenshaw. The first two are expected to open in September while BBGPA plans for a school to open in 2013. A decision on the business case of two other free schools – both wanting to open this September – is still awaited. No DfE announcement has been made on either the Rainbow Primary in Bradford or McAuley College Academy in Hull.

Another planned free school, the Three Valleys Independent Academy in Rotherham, has now been entered into the new application process.

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A group of parents whose original free school plans were knocked back by Ministers have confirmed that they have submitted a new bid.

The York Free School group wanted to set up their own small secondary school to serve 200 pupils in the Holgate area. Now they have decided to relaunch their campaign for the Lindley Murray free school serving the entire city.