EDUCATION secretary Michael Gove has praised the ‘very ambitious and aspirational curriculum’ of a new free school for South Ealing.

Mr Gove backed the ethos of Ealing Fields High School, due to open in the borough in September 2015.

He was invited to meet members of the free school’s steering group by Northfields councillor David Millican.

The meeting in Ealing Town Hall on Tuesday was also attended by Angie Bray, Conservative MP for Ealing Central and Acton, and Conservative councillor for Ealing Common, Roz Reece.

Mr Millican, Ealing Conservative Group leader, said: “It was good to have the secretary of state here to meet with the management team and to give the school a positive boost. Mr Gove could see how passionate the group is about the school.”

Mr Gove told the group that all free schools must go through a rigorous vetting process by the Department for Education, which will do everything possible to help secure a suitable site.

He said: “One of the things that stood out about Ealing Fields is the desire to have a very ambitious and aspirational curriculum.

“I think that the combination of high ambitions and a desire to enlist and support parents as part of the extended school community, the family, is an attractive model.

“A dedicated, community-based, parent-led team wanting to establish a secondary free school in an area with very high basic need would be a group of people that we really would want to ensure had appropriate premises.

“The original vision of free schools was driven by my belief that if you plan everything from Whitehall or from the town hall, then you run the risk of not actually appreciating where the demand is and not being sufficiently responsive to what parents and students genuinely want.

“If you don’t have community groups, parent-led groups, then we’ll lose touch with one of the most successful routes to keeping schools close to their community and effective in what they do.”

Dr Judith Mortell, an educational psychologist and leader of the Ealing Fields steering group, said: “It was great to receive so much support from the secretary of state.”