Agenda item

Under Section 6A of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 (the ‘free school presumption’), where a local authority identifies the need to establish a new school it must, in the first instance, seek proposals to establish a Free School. Surrey County Council (SCC) has identified the need to establish a new two Form Entry (2FE) Primary School in the North West Sector of Horley to open in September 2020. The Authority has therefore sought proposals from appropriate sponsors to open this new school. The window for the receipt of applications ran from 6 February 2017 to 31 March 2017.

The Cabinet Member for Education reviewed the background to the project and summary of Internal Assessment Panel scoring process provided within the report and associated annexes and, on that basis, decided on Aurora Academies Trust as the preferred proposer to open and operate the new 2FE Primary Free School in North West Horley from September 2020 and to submit this preference to the Secretary of State for Education for their consideration.