Free-schools.com?

Periplus Home Education has submitted an application to develop the first state-funded, full time, over-the-Internet school.

The bid makes use of new legislation which allows charities and other groups to set up ‘free schools’ and is aimed primarily at the home educating community, who it’s said will benefit from the access to high-quality teaching and resources a Web solution would provide whilst retaining the benefits that home education confers. Although said legislation doesn’t directly cater for the idea, neither does it rule it out, and Periplus’s principal, John Edwards, is optimistic that the company’s proposal will meet the Government’s criteria.

There are clearly questions to be answered about how such a system would operate, but Mr Edwards suggested that issues such as socialisation, practical subjects and pastoral care had all been considered and innovative solutions arrived at. He even claimed that parents whose children currently attend a regular school might be lured by the potential of an educational environment in which bullying and disruption were entirely absent.

Needless to say, the first UK Internet free school is a fair way off from becoming a reality. First, Periplus must gain sufficient parental backing – with just three weeks to demonstrate the demand that exists, and without a local community to reach out to. Educators and parents alike can register their support at periplus.org.uk/free-school