For anyone following the progress of Primrose House, please see this important update. This is the text of an email sent to our supporters today:

Dear Friends and Supporters

I’m writing to update you on plans for Primrose House, the proposed Montessori Free School in Lewisham. We received encouraging feedback on our proposal from the Department for Education today. It praised in particular the school’s proposed ethos and curriculum and our group’s capacity to deliver them. It also noted the strong evidence of demand for a Montessori primary school in our local community.

However, we have agreed that it is unrealistic to proceed with opening the school by September this year given the very tight timeframe and the enormous amount that remains to be done, in particular finding and renovating the right permanent site. So, we are pursuing the goal of opening in September 2012.

Although this may be a disappointment to those who wanted to apply for their child to start this year (I include myself), we believe our group will be much better-placed to offer outstanding provision in permanent premises with the right school leader from 2012.

The DfE recognises the strength of our proposal and has encouraged us to continue to work towards opening a parent-led Free School. We will spend 12th March with the New Schools Network at a workshop for proposers from all over the country who are planning to open the doors to their schools in September next year. In the meantime, the hunt continues for the right building and an inspirational school leader.

I would like to thank everyone who has given us such strong support along the way. We have worked extremely hard and come a long way in the four months since we embarked on this journey. It is not over, just taking a little longer than we would like. Please continue to support the campaign and register your interest for a place at the school. We will need help with fundraising in the coming months and I hope some of you may volunteer some fantastic ideas and efforts.

Keep up to date with news on our blog and our facebook page. Our February newsletter is coming soon. Thanks again for your continued support.