DfE to target free schools in bottom-performing third of country
Social Mobility Action Plan to shift focus of free school programme towards underperforming areas
The Department for Education is going to target new free schools in parts of the country which are in the bottom third for educational standards.
Well-placed sources say that the government’s forthcoming Social Mobility Action Plan will state that the majority of free schools set up by central government will be in poorer performing areas.
This would result in the focus of the free school programme shifting away from the South East, where it has been traditionally strongest, to the North of England and the Midlands.
However, Tes understands that some free schools will continue to be opened in other, more successful, parts of the country via the “local authority route”.
Read the full article in the Tes.