Skip to content
15 April 2026

Tag: New Schools Network

Unity Howard to stand down as New Schools Network director

The director of the New Schools Network Unity Howard is to step down this year, the charity has said. Howard, who has run the free schools support organisation since July 2019, will step down in September and be succeeded by Sophie Harrison-Byrne, currently the NSN’s director of programmes. The NSN has not said why Howard […]

‘Phoenix’ free schools should replace ‘stubborn’ underperformers, says report

The government should replace “stubbornly” underperforming schools with new “phoenix” free schools, rank multi-academy trusts on improvement and buy out PFI contracts to level up education, according to a new report. Research by the conservative think-tank Onward and the charity New Schools Network, which supports free schools, found that 200,000 children lived in areas with […]

DfE names 21 free schools approved in wave 14

Twenty-one more free schools have been approved under wave 14 of the programme, which is again dominated by multi-academy trusts. Ministers have announced the first successful free school projects since June 2019. It follows substantial delays to the application process launched two years ago. Wave 14 was first launched in January 2019 by former education […]

Free schools can follow Nightingale lead

The rapid creation of temporary Nightingale hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic shows free schools shouldn’t have to wait for years to open, says a director at the New Schools Network. Sophie Harrison-Byrne, the director of programmes at the free schools support organisation, also urged the government to approve fewer bids from academy trusts “that simply […]

Free schools have a ‘branding problem’ says NSN director

Free schools have a “branding problem” and the “political will” behind them has diminished in recent years, the director of the New Schools Network has warned. Unity Howard, who runs the charity set up to support and promote free schools, told a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester today that free schools […]

7 ways to reinvigorate the free schools policy

Since 2010 free schools have helped to transform our education system, bringing high standards, new innovations from which other schools can learn and, perhaps most importantly, helping to dispel the notion there are some kids who ‘just can’t succeed’. But the momentum behind education reform and free schools has stalled because of Brexit’s dominance over […]

New free school applications process reveals workload push

The government has been accused of “unsubtly crow-barring” its need to reduce teacher workload into the new wave of free school applications. In their initial bid applicants must now demonstrate “clear and specific plans” for managing workload, an extra requirement on top of proving the area has low educational standards and needs more school places, […]