Government funded Parkfield, in Dorset, after ‘unbelievable’ lack of due diligence, says expert One of the government’s vaunted free schools, whose site was beset with so many problems it is estimated to have cost £35m, is set to close, having failed to attract enough pupils. Free schools were launched by Michael Gove in 2010, when he was education secretary, with the promise that they would close the attainment gap in England. Continue reading...