Free school (England)

A free school in England is a type of academy, a non-profit-making, independent, State-funded school which is free to attend but which is not controlled by a local authority. They are subject to the same School Admissions Code as all other State-funded schools.

Like other types of academy, free schools are governed by non-profit charitable trusts that sign funding agreements with the Secretary of State. There are different model funding agreements for single academy trusts and multi academy trusts.

Free schools are expected to offer a broad and balanced curriculum, are subject to the same Ofsted inspections as all other maintained schools and are expected to comply with standard performance measures.

To set up a free school, founding groups submit applications to the Department for Education. Groups include those run by parents, education charities and religious groups. Start-up grants are provided to establish the schools and ongoing funding is on an equivalent basis with other locally controlled state maintained schools.

From May 2015, usage of the term free school was also extended to new academies set up via a local authority competition.

Studio schools and university technical colleges are both sub-types of free school.

Between 2010 and 2015 more than 400 free schools were approved for opening in England by the Coalition Government, representing more than 230,000 school places across the country.

Free schools were introduced by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition following the 2010 general election as part of the Big Society initiative to make it possible for parents, teachers, charities and businesses to set up their own schools. Free schools are an extension of the existing academies programme. The Academies Act 2010, which allowed all existing state schools to become academies, also authorised the creation of free schools. The first 24 free schools opened in autumn 2011.

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