PRESS RELEASE : Michael Gove announces 2012 free school applications [June 2011]

The press release issued by the Department for Education on 20 June 2011.

In a speech today, Education Secretary Michael Gove announced the numbers in the 2012 Free School applications round.

He said:

Our school system leaves children poorly prepared for the world we face. We have just suffered the worst financial crisis since 1929. Our economy is weighed down by a huge debt burden. Europe has major problems with debt and the euro. Meanwhile there is a rapid and historic shift of political and economic power to Asia and a series of scientific and technological changes that are transforming our culture, economy and global politics. If we do not have a school system that is adapting to and preparing for these challenges then we will betray a generation.

The highest-performing education systems are those where government knows when to step back. We want a school system in which teachers have more power and in which they are more accountable to parents – not politicians.

Our critics said it was impossible to open a school in little more than a year. Several will open this September. They told us that schools wouldn’t want to become Academies. They are converting at a rate of two every school day.

Application figures

In the application round that was launched on 17 March 2011 and closed on 15 June 2011, the Department received 281 applications to set up a Free School from September 2012.

There were 37 applications to set up a University Technical College.

Of the 281 Free School applications received, the current analysis shows that

• 227 are for mainstream schools
• 34 are for alternative provision schools (such as Pupil Referral Units)
• 20 are for schools for children with Special Educational Needs.

Of the 227 mainstream applications

• 77 (34%) are for primary schools
• 81 (36%) are for secondary schools
• 65 (29%) are for all through schools
• 4 (2%) are for 16-19 schools.

Of the 227 mainstream applications

• 12 (5%) applications came from existing Academy providers
• 126 (56%) applications came from local groups.

The percentage of applications from independent schools wishing to move into the state sector has decreased in this application round.

• 40 (18%) of the 227 applications are from existing independent schools, compared to 98 (35%) last year

The percentage of schools characterising themselves as faith schools has also fallen

• 65 (29%) compared to 115 (40%) last year.

Recent research shows that, of the 32 groups that the Department is progressing

• two Free Schools are located in the most deprived 10% of Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) in the country
• one is in the least deprived 10% of LSOAs in the country
• just under a third (31%) are located in the most deprived 20% LSOAs of the country
• the majority (59%) are located in the most deprived 50% of LSOAs in the country.

A Lower Super Output Area is made up of around 1,500 residents, surrounding the 32 Free Schools. This is judged to a reasonable reflection of the catchment size of many of the Free Schools.

Between 10 and 20 schools are expected to open this September, having taken little more than 15 months to set up from initial application. Previously, parent promoted schools could take up to nine years to set up from conception, and it took three years for the first 12 Academies to open.