BOURNEMOUTH and Poole’s first free school is set to open in just five months’ time – but it still has to seal the deal on its preferred site.

Parkfield School is due to open its doors to pupils this September but is still in negotiations to buy the freehold to Homelife House in Oxford Road, Bournemouth.

It also still has to receive the final go-ahead by the Department for Education and, if it succeeds in buying Homelife House, will also have to apply for planning permission to convert the office block into a school.

But the people behind the scheme are optimistic they are still on track for a September opening. Head Terry Conaghan takes on the role full-time next week and will then set about getting his teaching team in place.

The school received a high number of applications and most years are full with waiting lists in operations.

Prospective parents will get sent offers of places once the Department for Education has given its approval. The school is independent of Bournemouth and Poole councils but many parents will have applied for a conventional school place as well as applying for Parkfield.

Both councils have agreed that parents can hold on to a state school place until Parkfield has all its permissions in place.

Spokesperson Ed Forbes said: “There’s been no shortage of places but we want to get everything signed off with the Department for Education before confirming places.

“We would not want to mislead people, we think it’s important that they get an offer when it is absolutely guaranteed that the school will be up and running.

“There has been a huge amount of work to ensure that the numbers are right, the funding levels are right, the building is right and we get the best we can possibly deliver.”