The University of Cambridge Primary School has already been approved to continue to the pre-opening phase of the Free School process. The current consultation is to determine whether there is support from the local community for the Primary School to enter into a funding agreement with the Secretary of State for Education. This consultation is a requirement of Section 10 of the Academies Act 2010.
Whilst the main function of the University of Cambridge Primary School will be the education of nursery and primary-aged children, the school is unique as it will also be a provider of teacher education, professional learning, and educational research.
The teacher training and educational research will be linked with the existing Early Years and Primary PGCE programme offered by the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education. This programme has been ranked consistently by Ofsted as Outstanding.