§ Mr. GibbTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many(a) failing schools have closed and (b) new schools opened under the Fresh Start programme since 2000; and if he will make a statement. [129315]
§ Mr. MilibandSince January 2000, 29 failing schools have closed and 25 new schools have opened under the Fresh Start programme. In three cases, two adjacent failing schools have closed, to be replaced by a single Fresh Start school. In another four cases, there has been an amalgamation of a failing and a non failing school to create a new institution. One Fresh Start school, Telegraph Hill in Lewisham, which opened in 1999 and was subsequently deemed to be failing, closed in August 2001.