A number of schools abroad have joined as international affiliates, and the Trust is keen to extend its international links. If your school is keen to become involved, but is outside England, please do contact us to explore the possibility of international affiliation. Schools wishing to apply for specialist status must apply to the Specialist Schools Unit at the DfES, who can provide guidelines and application forms. They all have to operate within the admissions framework agreed for their area. This is a misleading view of things because it is grossly over-simplistic.
All specialist schools have to devote a third of their annual grant to their community role.
Their community partners must include at least one non-specialist secondary school. Therefore almost every, if not all, secondary schools in the country stands to benefit from the programme in some way. The target for the number of specialist schools has moved from 500 to 800 to 1,000 and now 1,500. As long as good bids continue to come forward this may not be the final target. Specialist schools are not the only element of 'diversity' in the system.