What are Free Schools?

In June 2010, the government invited groups of parents, teachers, charities and local communities to develop proposals to set up a new type of school: a 'Free School'. Where the Department for Education believes that a proposed school meets a local need and will be successful, a new Free School is set up.

Free Schools are funded by the government, so parents do not pay anything to send their child to a Free School and groups running Free Schools cannot make a profit.

Although the government funds Free Schools, because they are a type of Academy, they can do things differently from other state schools. For example, they can follow a different curriculum, or change the length of the school day. Just like any other school, though, they are still inspected by Ofsted to make sure they achieve high standards.

Free Schools must be open to pupils of all abilities and cannot be academically selective. Like at GFS, parents normally apply to a Free School in the same way as for any other school.

The Greenwich Free School was one of the second ever groups of Free Schools to open and welcomed our first cohort of Year 7 pupils in September 2012. We will grow to our full size of 700 pupils by 2016.