Greenwich Free Primary: what do you think?

In our first year of operation, Greenwich Free School became the most oversubscribed secondary school in Greenwich, with seven children applying for each place. Now, GFS has applied to the DfE to help address the severe shortage of primary places in Greenwich, by applying the values and approach that have proven so popular, to a new Primary School in Victoria House, next to our current site.

We will hear from the DfE in late Spring whether they will approve our proposal. If they do, we will have 18 months to prepare, before opening the new school in September 2015 - taking an initial cohort of Reception pupils and building to scale over the next seven years.

We remain keen to hear your views and for prospective parents to register interest here. You can also email us with any questions. We're looking forward to hearing from you!

Please note that we are now advertising for a Founding Headteacher to lead the school's development and growth. Details of the role can be found on our careers page, here.

The proposal

The proposed primary school would support and challenge our pupils to aim high – and fulfil those ambitions. We would teach pupils in smaller, more personal groups, with teachers working 1:1 with any pupil in danger of falling behind. This would ensure that every pupil makes exceptional progress and builds the skills and knowledge to thoroughly prepare them for success at secondary school and beyond.

A longer school day, from 0830 to 1630 – including daily extra-curricular activities – would accommodate a rigorous curriculum that by Year 2 would include learning a foreign language, computer science, philosophy and science – as well as more traditional primary school subjects. Our primary pupils would receive the kind of teaching, extra-curricular activities and visits more normally found at expensive prep schools. Childcare before and after the core school day would provide for pupils to be supervised from 0800 to 1800 to help working parents.

Like GFS, we would invest in finding the very best teachers and giving them the time, training and support to be exceptional. We’d work closely with GFS to share specialist facilities, build links between staff and have GFS’ wonderful pupils act as mentors for our primary pupils. And, of course, our primary pupils would be prioritised for admission to GFS, ensuring that they transition seamlessly to secondary school.

And as well as helping our pupils develop academically, we would nurture every pupil’s creativity, confidence, courage and curiosity – to help each of them flourish as a rounded, inquisitive individual, passionate about learning. Our calm, secure and stimulating community would be a school of which our pupils feel proud: one that they care about, and that cares about them.

We believe that all children can succeed if given outstanding teaching and pastoral care. Life at our primary school would be engaging, exciting and fun. And our pupils would make exceptional academic progress.