£9m flagship free school to close just four years after opening

'Councils are faced with a ludicrous system where all new schools must be academies or free schools without any local accountability'

The Discovery School in Newcastle will close down after the summer term (Google)

A free school costing £9m is to close just four years after opening due to concerns over safeguarding.

The Discovery School in Newcastle – which left a pupil behind on a trip to London earlier this year – has also admitted problems with poor teaching and leadership.

The specialist science and technology free school will close at the end of the academic year after the Department for Education (DfE) pulled its funding.

The school, which opened in 2014, has the capacity for 700 students but has fewer than 200 pupils on its roll.

In March, the school made the news when a student was left alone in London after a trip as the rest of the group headed back to Newcastle on the train.

Headteacher Gareth Rowe said at the time there was “no excuse”.

The pupil, believed to be 14, immediately alerted station staff at King's Cross and was put on the next service north, accompanied by train staff in first class, and was met by a teacher in York.

Following the error, the school approached Newcastle City Council – and the council contacted the Regional Schools Commissioner and Ofsted.

A snap inspection was carried out and the result was expected to be a rating of “inadequate”.

A spokesman for the school said: “We regret this is the outcome but it is clear the school is simply not working for students, parents and staff.

“Our first duty is to the pupils who are entitled to be safe, well and to get the best education they can.

”We realise this will be upsetting for pupils and parents – and for staff who will be made redundant – however we cannot allow the situation to continue and believe that in the long term this will be for the best.

“It is very early days and in the next few weeks there will be a lot of activity to ensure that the process of closure, and finding new schools for pupils, is as straightforward as possible. We will offer full support to those families affected.”

Nick Forbes, the Labour leader of Newcastle City Council, said the closure was a “damning indictment of the government's high-risk experiment in our education system”.

He said: “Councils are faced with a ludicrous system where all new schools must be academies or free schools, without any local accountability.

”This is the only way government will provide funding for the new schools our growing population needs.

“We still don't fully know what went wrong at the school, and it is vital parents and councillors are informed so we can prevent a repeat of this in other government-backed schools.”

Earlier this year, a report called on the government to review its flagship free schools policy after research suggested it has failed to fulfil its original purpose of providing parent-led schools.

Free schools also take a disproportionately low number of disadvantaged pupils from their catchment areas, the damning study by charity Sutton Trust found.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “As Discovery School has said, the first duty of a school is to give the pupils the best education they can – we don’t think this is happening which is letting down pupils, parents and teachers.

"We have therefore decided to close the school as we do not believe the Academy is able to make the improvements needed to ensure pupils receive the education they deserve.

"The Regional Schools Commissioner’s office is now working with the trust, Newcastle City Council and other local authorities to make sure pupils find suitable alternatives to continue their studies with as little disruption as possible.”

With additional reporting by PA