Council delays fuel Free School project (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Council delays fuel Free School project

5:00pm Sunday 15th January 2012 in Education By Emily Roberts

PLANS to set up a £8.5million Free School in Basingstoke are underway to provide spaces for 420 pupils in Rooksdown.

Simon Bound, manager of Rooksdown Community Centre, is leading a community initiative to build the primary school, and will hold a public consultation about it later this month.

He said: “There’s been a plan for a primary school to be built here and the trigger point was 800 houses. We are up to 1,200 and Hampshire County Council are still dragging their feet. We can now apply to build our own school. Rather than wait, we are getting on with it ourselves.”

A Free School is a state-funded school, set up in response to local people’s requests, approved by the Government.

Cash comes straight to the school, cutting out the local education authority.

At the moment, children living in Rooksdown have to attend schools in either Winklebury or Popley.

As previously reported in The Gazette, the county council has already said there is a need for two or three new primary schools in Basingstoke during the next 10 years, and is assessing the need at the former Park Prewett hospital site.

But Mr Bound said the community is not prepared to wait any longer.

He added: “If we are not successful, at least it will get the council to see how serious we are.

“At the moment, children are forced to travel, when there’s a two- hectare site here and the council keep saying they are going to build a school but they don’t put it in their plans.”

Groups looking to set up a Free School have to apply to Michael Gove, Secretary of State, and show they have strong educational aims and objectives, and the ability and resources to deliver them. The schools cannot make a profit and cannot be selective.

The Department for Education states on its website: “Evidence shows that, far from having a negative impact on nearby institutions, new schools can drive up standards across a local area.”

The first Free School opened in September last year.

Mr Bound has set up the Rooksdown Primary School Trust to apply for £8.5m start-up funding from the Government, and said there was so far support from around 40 residents.

The school would have 14 classes, from Reception to Year 6, with two classes per year group made up of 30 pupils.

The trust now needs to collect evidence to show there is parental support and aims to do this at public meetings in the Community Centre on January 23 at 8.30pm and January 29 from 2-4pm.