Free school proposals for a Chester-based sixth form centre of excellence have been submitted to the Department for Education.
A group of experienced teachers are behind Cheshire Free School which is a vision is to establish a world-class STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) College for talented and ambitious 16- to 19-year-olds.
The location has not been finalised although Chester Business Park is being considered for its good public transport links and because there would be room to expand.
It would cater for 400 students from a wide catchment area including Chester but youngsters are also expected to come from Wrexham, Flintshire, Wirral, Runcorn and Warrington.
Pauline Lowrie and Vim Jesudason of the Cheshire Free School said: “We would like to thank everyone who has helped us in this journey, especially the parents who have supported our vision and registered an interest for their child, or who have ‘liked’ our Facebook page.
“We would also like to thank the professionals from local colleges and independent schools who have given their time and expertise voluntarily to help us. However, there are more challenges still to come, and we still need parents to register interest on our website. The more registrations of interest that we have, the more likely we are to succeed in the next stage of our application.”
Pauline denied the college would destabilise local schools saying: “We are offering a limited range of A levels for one thing, specialising in STEM subjects and we would have quite high entry requirements – eight grade Bs at GCSE.
“We are not going to destabilise local sixth forms. We might take two or three students at most from a given school. We are not looking to destabilise those schools at all. We are offering something that’s quite specialist. I don’t see that happening.” If approved, the college could open in September 2016, specialising in science and maths A-levels, though not exclusively, with a view to increasing the number of young people locally accessing STEM degree courses at top universities.
The application represents months of hard work. To complete the 100-page application form Cheshire Free School had to write detailed education plans and budgets; explain why the school is needed by this community and demonstrate it has local support.
More than 400 parents signed-up to say that this school would be their first choice. If approved, the next stage will be a rigorous interview with the Department for Education after which the school will learn whether it has been successful.
Cheshire Free School was supported through the application process by national charity the New Schools Network.
Natalie Evans, director of New Schools Network, said: “Cheshire Free School has worked hard to prepare an application for the Department for Education and we hope they will have the chance to put their plans into action when the government announces next year which groups have been given the green light to open.
“There are now more than 360 free schools open or approved, which are proving popular with parents and are adding good new school places to their local communities.”
Supporters argue free schools, which are state-funded but independent of local authority control, deliver excellent educational standards but critics claim they are elitist establishments which serve the middle classes.
Interested parents can find out more at www.cheshireschool.org.
