Controversial merger exposes “risks” of setting up free schools without “basic” need for more places, court papers warn

Serious reservations were expressed behind the scenes about a controversial merger of two secondary schools run by a well-connected academy trust in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, background documents disclosed for a High Court case have revealed.

A minister, Nick Gibb, was originally “minded” not to go ahead with the proposal to merge Trafalgar College, a free school which opened less than two years ago, with another school run by a trust which had been set up by his ministerial colleague, Lord Agnew, though Gibb changed his mind following discussions with officials.

The final decision had come after an official warning to Gibb that the Inspiration Trust running both schools could abandon one– the controversial Great Yarmouth Charter Academy – if the merger plan did not go ahead.

A very senior figure – possibly from the Treasury – said the case, in which a free school was opened and then plans emerged only six months later to do the merger on grounds that there were too many school places in the town, appeared “to be a very strong example of the risks of approving new schools in areas without a basic need for places”.

And Department for Education officials admitted, in a briefing paper, that the plan to technically close the second school, Great Yarmouth Charter Academy, and move Trafalgar onto its site, then use capital funding for Trafalgar to improve the site of the newly-merged academy “could set a [problematic] precedent for the free school programme”.