Free Ancoats School Two Thirds Short Of Student Target

PLANS for a brand new free school in New Islington in Ancoats have so far failed to spark interest among local residents - but the developers are hopeful of making the project work.

Manchester Grammar School, Manchester City Council and property developers Urban Splash want to build the school behind the Central Retail Park off Great Ancoats Street but need a sharp increase in the number of online expressions of interest if it is to have any chance of being realised.

“If we fall short of the 60 registrations by the deadline, we will have to defer our proposal until next year."

The project needs 60 families with a child in the right postcode area, who will be between four and five years-old by 2013, to have registered an interest by the 24 February 2012.

There are currently just 21.

Stuart Leeming, deputy high master at The Manchester Grammar School, said: “We need half of our planned first year intake to register an interest online before we submit our proposal.

“We are a third of the way there but we need a big push now if we are going to make it.”

The school will be open to both boys and girls and will not select its intake on academic grounds. The aim is to provide high quality education, which draws on the best principles of MGS, yet delivered in and adapted for a different context. Leeming insists it will not be a clone of MGS.

Tom Bloxham MBE, chairman of Urban Splash, said: “There’s a generation of people who’ve lived in city apartments for the past decade but at the point of having children they often feel that they have to move out to the suburbs.”

It’s a situation Debra Todd, a resident at Royal Mill Apartments and a parent, knows only too well.

“I’m constantly under pressure from my suburban friends who keep asking, 'when are you going to move to Didsbury, Chorlton, Altrincham, etc.'” she said.

“This school would encourage city families such as us to stay here. The facilities we have for children at the moment are excellent, we just need a school.”

Sir Richard Leese, Leader of Manchester City Council, said: “It’s long been one of our goals to have a new primary school in New Islington and that vision is moving forward step by step.”

As a free school, New Islington will be independent of state or local authority control but will be funded in full by the Department for Education.

It will be set-up and run by a not-for-profit company that will become an exempt educational charity. The Directors of that company will form the Board of Governors,  and will be responsible for the operation of the School.

A promotional campaign has been running on twitter and posters are beginning to spring up in the city. It appears that many are aware of this project and support it, but what is urgently needed is registered interest online.

Leeming would like more than 100 registrations to cover intake for the first two years, but with time running out, that number could be difficult to achieve.

“If we fall short of the 60 registrations by the deadline, we will have to defer our proposal until next year,” he said.

To register your interest in a New Islington Free School, visit their website here