Department For Education
This guidance is for:
- local authorities
- academy trusts
It describes the process for establishing new academies (free schools) under the free school presumption. You should read it in conjunction with the annex documents on this page.
The Education Act 2011 changed the arrangements for establishing new schools and introduced section 6A to the Education and Inspections Act 2006, which is known as the academy or free school presumption.
Local authorities can adapt the annex A model specification to specify what they need from proposers.
New school proposers can use the annex B model application form to submit their proposals to the local authority.
Both local authorities and proposers should refer to annex C, the model criteria for presumption schools, when seeking proposals or making applications.
Both local authorities and proposers should refer to annex D, pre-opening expectations, for information about the requirements (some of which are statutory) to be fulfilled during the pre-opening phase.
Single or multi-academy trusts establishing new academies and free schools should refer to the model academy and free school funding agreements.