MP to ask minister to reconsider free school closure

Pupils Gerald Schilthuis-Duggan, James Beard, Molly Cass and Lara Leppenwell with Emily Leppenwell and Crawley MP Henry Smith handing in a petition to the Prime Minister before Christmas

Governors of a Crawley school will join the town's MP today (Tuesday January 14) in asking the schools minister to spare it from closure.

Henry Smith is supporting staff, parents and pupils at Discovery New School in Broadfield following the Government’s announcement that it must close on April 4.

Discovery New School is a free school, which means it is state-funded but independently run.

It went into special measures in May 2013 after its first Ofsted inspection and follow up inspections showed it had not improved enough.

The school argues its new headteacher has not been given sufficient time to turn things around and Mr Smith agrees.

Many state controlled schools are given more than a year to come out of special measures and he has organised a meeting with the schools minister John Nash this afternoon to argue that point.

He and the governors will call on him to reconsider the Department for Education’s decision and give the school more support.

Read the full story in tomorrow’s Crawley Observer.