Agencies/London
Education Secretary Michael Gove has approved more than 100 free school applications, which will make up around 50,000 school places.
The proposals included a music school for 16 to 19-year-olds in Tower Hamlets, London, and two National Autistic Society schools, one in east Cheshire and one in Lambeth, London.
Gove said: “There are many innovators in local communities set on raising standards of education for their children. I am delighted to approve so many of their high-quality plans to open a free school. Free schools are extremely popular with parents and are delivering strong discipline and teaching excellence across the country.”
Many of the schools will be based in deprived areas or where there is a shortage of school places, with 72% of free school approvals going towards meeting basic need.
The 102 free schools, which are expected to open in 2014, will join the 81 current free schools and 109 which are due to open from September.
In total, the free schools will cover 130,000 school places.
Gove also approved the Family School in London for children with complex psychological, family and mental health problems and a co-educational Sikh school in Coventry for four to 16-year-olds, called The Seva School.
Perry Beeches Academy Trust - which improved Key Stage 4 attainment from 20% with five or more A*-C including English and maths in 2006 to 75% by 2011 - had a secondary school in Birmingham approved.
The prestigious Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts (LIPA) had its proposal for a creative arts primary free school in Liverpool granted.
A leading grammar school, Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Blackburn, was approved to become a free school, while XP School in Doncaster will draw on US charter schools to prepare pupils for real world experiences.
