New schools: new expressions of our mission in education One of the core purposes of the Board of Education is to enable as many young people as possible to experience a Christian education We consistently support our existing family of schools in reaching out to more and more young people and families, but from time to time opportunities come along for us to serve new communities by opening new schools One such opportunity is the Free Schools programme Like many DfE initiatives, the Free Schools programme has its champions as well as its critics It is not difficult for champions to point to examples of successful free schools or for critics to produce examples of schools approved in the early days of the programme that were neither needed nor sustainable Many things have changed since those early days The Free Schools programme has evolved into DfE’s preferred route for opening new schools to meet the need for substantial numbers of additional school places This has advantages for LAs, because it shifts the burden of the costs of these new schools from their shoulders to the central Education Funding Agency Now, however, there are signs that DfE is looking to push the funding burden back to LAs, revising the criteria for opening new schools through the Free Schools programme and obliging LAs to hold competitions for the provision of new schools to meet basic need In November 2016, the Board of Education decided to engage with the Free Schools programme and to identify missional opportunities to add new schools to our flourishing diocesan family of Church schools Its decision was a response to encouragement from National Society endorsed by General Synod, which was set out in Church of England Vision for Education: Deeply Christian, Serving the Common Good (July 2016): There is a unique opportunity for the Church of England to renew and enhance its contribution to the education of our nation’s children, especially through the expansion of Church of England Free Schools, an opportunity which should be seized wholeheartedly Standing still is not an option; we will either seize the opportunity or our contribution to State education will decline (p21) The aspiration of National Society was for 125 of the 500 free schools that the Government was then proposing to open by 2020 to be Church of England schools The Board was keen to play its part in realising this ambition It is a requirement of the Free Schools programme that new primary schools will be forms of entry (420 places) and secondary schools must be at least forms of entry (600 places 11-16) These are relatively high thresholds To play our part in making a reality of National Society’s vision, we have worked closely with our LA partners to understand their strategies for providing additional places through the expansion of existing schools and to identify where, having exhausted these strategies, a new free school of the required size is in their view the only way of meeting the level of need for additional places in full The road to opening a free school is lengthy with many twists and turns Applicants are required to bid against criteria and to deadlines published by DfE It is a rigorous competitive process, and successful applications require the approval of the Secretary of State for Education, who will in turn require input from the Regional Schools Commissioners in coming to a decision Even so, not all schools that are formally approved at this stage actually open their doors to pupils: there is a long pre-opening phase, with many checks and balances to ensure that the proposed new school is genuinely needed, financially viable and sustainable, has a suitable site and will provide a high standard of education An already challenging process has been made even more difficult this time round The lengthy delays to the publication of the Education White Paper following the consultation on the Green Paper “Schools that Work for Everyone” at the end of 2016 have delayed the announcement of the criteria and deadline for the current wave of free schools (Wave 13), which was expected in February As if that were not enough, we are now in election purdah with the prospect of an incoming government that will take time to find its educational feet This is not helpful! We have therefore had to work on our bid using the criteria for Wave 12 and anticipating the likely changes for Wave 13, because there is a lot to and because we not want to be caught out if the timetable for submitting bids following the eventual publication of the criteria and deadline is tight This work has included publishing details of the schools we are proposing – even though we are a long way from being sure that we shall have the opportunity to deliver them – because our bid will have to demonstrate that we have consulted on our proposals and have parental support The prolonged period of uncertainty and lack of clarity around the criteria for Wave 13 has also left room for possible changes in DfE policy – particularly around how new free schools are funded and the expectation that, where a new free school is required solely to meet basic need for places, LAs may be obliged to hold competitions to determine who will provide it and will have to pay the costs of both the process and the new school Where this happens, the final decision on the school will be taken by the Regional Schools Commissioners Some LAs will struggle to find the funds to go down this route: others are already seeing the writing on the wall where the need for additional places is pressing and are announcing competitions We are therefore following National Society advice and making sure that, where we are overtaken by events and a competition is announced for a free school that would otherwise have been included in our Wave 13 bid, we are ready to adapt our bid and submit it through the competition The fact that LAs are announcing competitions for free schools that would otherwise have formed part of our Wave 13 bid is reassuring evidence that we have carried out our due diligence effectively, keeping the possible concerns and aspirations of neighbouring schools in view, and that new free schools are indeed required to meet specific local needs for substantial numbers of additional school places Opening and developing new schools is a huge undertaking and challenge, and we have always recognised that the experience, expertise and resource to this resides with our established multi-academy trusts (MATs) The Board of Education therefore turned to our diocesan MATs to work with us in proposing new free schools where the need for them had been identified It is a tribute to the overriding commitment of these MATs to the Church’s mission in education and their loyalty to the diocesan family of schools that the Trust boards and CEOs/Executive Principals responded positively to the Board of Education initiative We are immensely grateful to them for this The bidding process requires that proposals will be submitted in their names in partnership with the Diocese There is still a long way to go before we know the outcomes of our aspirations for new free schools, but we believe that the prize of enabling more young people to experience a Christian education far exceeds the challenges of the journey The process is difficult and complex, which makes good communication of what is going on essential as well as hard to achieve We plan to use bulletins such as this to keep schools and parishes in touch with our progress We will keep you posted! ... neighbouring schools in view, and that new free schools are indeed required to meet specific local needs for substantial numbers of additional school places Opening and developing new schools is... for possible changes in DfE policy – particularly around how new free schools are funded and the expectation that, where a new free school is required solely to meet basic need for places, LAs... consultation on the Green Paper ? ?Schools that Work for Everyone” at the end of 2016 have delayed the announcement of the criteria and deadline for the current wave of free schools (Wave 13), which was