Our monthly Free Schools Round Up will provide you with education news from the last month, featuring key updates on the individual free school waves and free school and academy news highlights.
Key Updates on Waves
At Create: Schools we are able to offer free support with your application, if you require a review of your bid or have any further queries, please contact us via our contact form here.
AP Wave
The final deadline for AP partnerships to submit their applications via email to the DfE is the 17th February. Following the deadline, applications will then be assessed, with successful submissions to be announced early autumn next year.
Wave 15
The deadline has passed for mainstream application submissions, it is anticipated that the interview stage of assessment will begin in March 2023, with approved applications to be announced later in the spring.
Special Wave
The deadline for local authorities to submit their applications to the DfE passed last October. The DfE published the list of local authorities applicants in November 2022, which can be found here. Once successful local authorities have been announced in early 2023, proposer groups will be able to apply to open special free schools.
Free Schools in the News: This Month's Top Stories
In January, the National Education Union (NEU) announced seven days of strikes throughout February and March. The strikes follow the pay rise of 5%, due to high levels of inflation, the NEU identified this to equate to a pay cut.
The government has announced increased funding rates worth an additional £125 million for schools, colleges and other providers delivering education to 16- to 19-year-olds next year (2023 to 2024).
Following an admission from Ofsted that its complaints policy ‘isn’t working’ and an inconsistency in judgements, Ofsted officials are now reviewing policy to identify where the system can be improved. Training for trust leaders, called ‘seeing the big picture’ began in January.
Rishi Sunak announced his mission to ‘reimagine our approach to numeracy’ at the start of January. Through this new mission, all pupils in England will study maths until the age of 18 under the prime minister’s plans.
An update from the DfE saw further guidance published regarding providing remote education for pupils when in-person attendance is not possible – such as school closures, restrictions on attendance or individual cases where pupils are unable to attend school.
The delivery of 20,000 defibrillators to state schools without a device has begun, following a campaign from the Oliver King Foundation, and a commitment form the government in 2022 to ensure schools are supplied with the life-saving equipment.