Secondary academy calls on Labour government to review the free schools policy, after warning that new institution stands to leave it “half-empty”

Plans for a new secondary free school on the north Cornwall coast, approved by the Conservative government and seemingly still going ahead, are being criticised by another local academy as a “waste of public money,” after the local authority issued a county-wide prediction of falling pupil numbers.

Perranporth Academy, which will eventually cater for up to 1,050 pupils, is due to start recruiting year 7 youngsters in September 2026. It will be part of the Truro and Penwith Academy Trust, a chain based in Truro which currently runs 34 schools.

The academy was reported as “much-needed” by the website Cornwall Live in August, which it said would provide a local school for children in and around the town of Perranporth, who currently have to travel to the towns of Truro and Newquay, eight to 10 miles away, for their secondary education. It would also, said the article, “help to alleviate pressure” on the “oversubscribed” schools they currently attend.

However, one of those schools, Penair in Truro, has been raising concerns that the new institution stands to see it losing hundreds of pupils, and with it the possibility of having to cut its curriculum and make staff redundancies, because of the latest demographic projections.

County-wide projections

Last month, the school admissions team at Cornwall county council sent an email to secondary schools in which it set out predictions of falling rolls, with secondary pupil numbers due to peak in 2025 – the year before the Perranporth free school is due to open.