New firm aims to bring fresh impetus to 'free school' plans

PLANS to create a so-called free school in South Yorkshire are to go ahead under new leadership after the man who helped create the original scheme said he was "backing away" to concentrate on other projects.

Earlier this year, the Nationwide Independent College of Higher Education (NICHE), unveiled its idea to open a new school on a site in Manvers, near Rotherham, under the Government's Free Schools Strategy.

The strategy was one of the first policies unveiled by Conservative Education Secretary Michael Gove after the General Election and aims to allow community groups and parents to set up their own schools.

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NICHE, led by its principal and chief executive John Morahan, announced earlier this year that it had applied for permission to open a school, but the plan was criticised by councillors and MP John Healey.

Mr Healey published a document in October in which he questioned the need for a new school in the area and said there were "serious questions" over the impact of the school on existing schools and pupils.

Yesterday, Mr Morahan told the Yorkshire Post that he had now stepped aside to allow a new limited company, called Three Valleys Independent Academy, to take over in a bid to take the project forward.

Mr Morahan said he was disappointed with the reaction he and the project had received, but added he had always planned to hand over the scheme to an independent firm which would work to bring it to fruition.

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Three Valleys Independent Academy will be led by retired businessman David Mann, who said his aim was to ensure the project was a success and to remove it from recent "emotional and political arguments".

Mr Mann, who ran property and wholesale businesses before he retired, added: "I want to keep it away from the emotion that has been flowing between certain individuals over the last few weeks and months.

"There seems to be a political agenda cropping up. This is not about politics, this is about setting up an educational establishment in this area, which will be independent and will give people another choice.

"Our view is that if the Government is going to make this money available, then we should be bidding for it because this is as good an area as any to spend it in. We want to create a commercially viable business to make it happen."

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If the Three Valleys Independent Academy receives approval from the Department of Education, proposals suggest that it will open an 850-place school with about 120 pupils in each year and no more than 20 students per class.

A building known as Humphrey Davy House, which is owned by Sheffield University, has been identified and a catchment area which takes in communities in Doncaster, Rotherham and Barnsley, has been drawn up.

The Government's 50m free school agenda has been consistently opposed by Labour, after the incoming coalition scrapped much of its Building Schools for the Future programme, which had a budget of 55bn.

Under the Government's policy, free schools would operate under the same legal framework as academies which were set up by Labour, which have a series of freedoms which set them apart from traditional state schools.

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These include the ability to set their own pay and conditions for staff, freedom from the National Curriculum, greater control of their budget the ability to change the length of terms and school days and freedom from local authority control.

Mr Mann added: "Where we stand now is that applications have been made to the Department of Education and from our point of view all the boxes have been ticked. The initial target opening was September 2011.

"Clearly as time moves forward it becomes more difficult and it may have to be 2012, but we have done everything that we can."