Crawley gets go ahead for one of the first 16 Free Schools

Crawley gets go ahead for one of the first 16 Free Schools

It was announced today by Michael Gove that Discovery New School (DNS) in Crawley is one of the first group of schools to be given the go ahead for opening in September 2011. The group is led by Crawley residents, Lindsey and Andrew Snowdon and will be a small primary school of just over a hundred pupils admitting children from across Crawley. They have now been approved to progress to the next stage where they will work on the detail of their application with the Department of Education. DNS have already spent many months in preparation and been through a rigorous process to be selected as one of the top 16 groups in the country.

Andrew Snowdon, of DNS commented: “We are thrilled to have been selected as one of the best in the country and allowed to move our application forward. We will be offering a real choice to parents with small classes using the well established Montessori teaching method and curriculum. In the next few weeks we will be working to agree the building, curriculum details and budgets with the Department for Education and start preparing for admissions in September 2011. This is great feather in the cap for Crawley and Sussex and we hope to help raise aspirations and offer parents greater choice. With Crawley continuing to expand there will be no impact on existing primary schools or their funding.

We believe that choice is important and that parents have a right to select a school that suits them and their child. Parents and teachers know that small classes and talented teachers with greater freedom in the classroom will make a difference. That is why the number of parents that have registered interest is already considerable and why we have had teachers applying for jobs before being approved. Montessori methods are well proven and put the child first allowing them to progress at the best possible pace for their individual needs. Children and teachers should enjoy school and pupils make better progress when they do.”

Final details to complete the application process must be agreed with the Department of Education but Discovery New School plans a target class sizes of 16 children with a similar budget to a local authority school. They will be a state school, with no selection or fees, run as a charity. Parents will be able to make applications for September 2011 to both existing schools and DNS.

Free Schools are academies within the state system,but not run by the local authority. Academies were originally set up by Labour and now being used by the Coalition Government and Education Secretary Michael Gove to allow smaller parent and teacher groups to start schools giving parents greater choice.

Andrew, 50 is a former KPMG consultant and businessman with interests in Crawley and London. He lives in Ifield and went to school in Crawley. Lindsey, a Montessori teacher, ran a small not for profit independent primary school for 6 years and served as a governor of several local state primary schools for a number of years.

Henry Smith, MP for Crawley, has been a strong supporter of Discovery New School from the beginning. Andrew Snowdon added “We are not linked to any political party our interest is in the children and education, but Henry Smith has always been there for us, even before he was elected as our MP in May. The application process is rigorous and Mr Smith has been very supportive throughout”.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 6th, 2010 at 14:01 and is filed under News Bulletins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.