A BID to open a new free school in the Wye Valley has gained the support of an independent education charity.

A steering group, led by chairwoman Sarah Mclellan and made up of parents and advisers, is working towards submitting an application to the Department for Education (DfE) to open the Wye Valley Free School for 284 children aged between four and 16 who live in Monmouthshire, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire.

The proposed school is one of over 70 groups of teachers, parents and charities to have won a place on the national programme with the New Schools Network.

The programme is run by an independent education charity and provides personalised support to free school groups in the form of an adviser, intensive educational, financial and operational advice, as they prepare to submit an application to the Department for Education (DfE) to open a free school from 2015.

The all-through school is based on the Montessori and Human Scale Education principles, and aims to use small learning groups and a teacher/child ratio which it is believed allows children to be known well, understood and responded to, in order to develop and engage children to attain GCSEs and the new English Baccalaureate, while meeting the requirements of the national curriculum. The school would start with 24 children in the primary section and 40 in the secondary and increase pupil numbers in phases. It would be state-funded, free from local authority control and have a board of governors. The location has yet to be decided, but is likely to be on the border of the three counties and close to the A40.

Last month the group was successful in an application to the New Schools Network (NSN) Development Fund. The group will receive £5,000 in funding towards the cost of marketing and research and help in their bid to raise £15,000 towards the application costs.

Mrs Mclellan is hoping to submit the DfE application by the end of December, and hopes more people will get involved in fundraising, publicity, marketing and research.

Natalie Evans, NSN’s director said: “The development programme has been designed to help support each group in making their vision a reality, and I am delighted to be welcoming Wye Valley Free School onto the programme.”

“We look forward to working with them as they develop their plans in more detail and work with their local community to gather support for their proposed new school.”

The group is holding a free talk on Human Scale Education by James Wetz, a former headteacher who made Channel Four’s dispatches programme, ‘The Children Left Behind’ and a presentation by the group at 7.30pm in The Priory, Monmouth on November 25.