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Well today's been fantastic. I've had the opportunity to come to open Woodpecker Hall
which is a new Free School, which has been set up by Sarah Oliver who was the deputy
head teacher at an already existing primary Academy called Cuckoo Hall. And she and the
head teacher at Cuckoo Hall Patricia Sowter are amazing people. They've done a wonderful
job really in setting up the school. Had the chance to meet the parents – it's fantastic
when you meet parents who are overjoyed because they've got their children into the school
of their dreams.
>> When people say to me about Free Schools and why a Free School. It wasn't a choice
that we set out and decided: oh we wanted a Free School. We wanted a school that was
going to give a good education.
>> When the opportunity arose to apply to open a Free School, we jumped at that chance.
We converted to become a primary Academy last year, around Cuckoo Hall and we applied to
open a Free School for this year.
It's a very popular choice for parents and we're already oversubscribed and we've only
been open for two days.
>> It's been lovely to be here at Woodpecker Hall, one of the 24 Free Schools that we're
opening this week. These schools are all opened by teachers or by parents groups or by charities
that want to give parents a wider choice. These schools are pioneering longer hours
and longer terms – they're tougher discipline in some cases – but also improved pastoral
care, great teaching higher standards. As a result more parents are getting the sort
of education that they want for their children, and also more schools are being encouraged
collectively to work with us to improve education for everyone.