Government gives go-ahead to first eight 'free schools'

The government today gave the green light for the first eight "free schools" to open in England, with the prime minister, David Cameron, pledging they will bring greater opportunity to the poorest pupils.

The education secretary, Michael Gove, used a conference in London to announce that the business plans of eight schools – four in the capital and the remainder in Suffolk, West Sussex, Norwich and Leicester – had been approved and will open in September in a move that has been attacked by teaching unions.

Gove also revealed that he was open to the idea of establishing a free school in the Department for Education's central London headquarters. "We have been trying to see how we can make use of DfE estates to make space available for schools," he said.

The free schools, which will be funded directly by Westminster and operate outside local authority control, include ARK Conway in Hammersmith, operated by the ARK charity which already sponsors academies and was established by a group of hedge fund managers; Etz Chaim, a Jewish school in Barnet; The Free School in Norwich set up by a group of teachers; and the I-Foundation, a Hindu school in Leicester.

The other four schools to win approval are St Luke's Church of England primary in Camden; the Discovery new school in West Sussex which will offer a Montessori curriculum; the Stour Valley community school in Suffolk, which emerged from a campaign to save a local middle school from closure; and Woodpecker Hall, a new primary established by an oversubscribed academy in Enfield.

Free schools will have more freedom over their curriculum and teachers' pay and conditions. Teachers employed by them will also not need to have formal teaching qualifications.

The New Schools Network, a charity set up to promote the free schools, has promised they will "improve the quality of education – particularly for the most deprived – by increasing the number of independent, innovative schools within the state sector".

According to the DfE: "Free schools are all-ability, state-funded schools, set up in response to parental demand. The most important element of a great education is the quality of teaching and free schools will enable excellent teachers to create schools and improve standards for all children, regardless of their background."

But teaching unions have warned they will cause "chaos" at a local level and "dismantle state education".

Earlier this year the teachers' union, the NUT, conducted a survey which it said revealed the public did not want free schools in England. A quarter of 1,000 parents said they would support a free school in their area, with 31% against and 43% unsure.

But in a video message to the conference, Cameron rejected the teachers' concerns. "For too long in our country, exercising choice to escape poor schools has been available to the richest, who could just opt out and go private, or to the middle classes who could move house to a better area, but the poorest have had to take what they're given. Not any more."

So far there have been almost 250 applications to set up a free school. Of these, 35 have been given at least initial approval.

The conference heard from a number of US teachers who had set up charter schools, on similar principles as free schools, in some of the most deprived areas in inner cities.

Joel Klein, former chancellor of the New York City education department, said: "Charter schools have given thousands of underprivileged children across America a better start in life."