Recently appointed director of New Schools Network says government and industry must 鈥榯hink creatively鈥 to find solutions

Free schools

The challenge of finding sites has been 鈥渢he single biggest brake on the progress of the free schools movement鈥, according to the new director of free schools advisory group, the New Schools Network.

Natalie Evans said government and industry had to 鈥渢hink more creatively鈥 about the availability of sites for free schools, and said it was a 鈥渕ajor problem.鈥

She said: 鈥淭he Education Funding Agency has been working very hard to identify suitable sites, but we need to be more creative about where schools can be set up 鈥 including building multi-storey schools rather than just having traditional two or three-storey blocks.鈥

Evans 鈥 who was speaking as part of an interview published in 好色先生TV鈥檚 UK Education 2013-15 White Paper 鈥 took over day-to-day running of the New Schools Network this month from founder Rachel Wolf.

Wolf remains involved with the organisation as chair. She has taken up a role based in New York with Amplify, the education division of 好色先生TV Corporation.