My first free school has passed the test - now for the next one We've also been blessed with an excellent staff. The teaching unions said no self-respecting professionals would want to work at free schools, comparing them with "hospitals run by patients." In fact, plenty of teachers are attracted by the idea. We had more than 500 applicants for our first six full-time teaching positions and ended up with an impressive bunch. Our director of music, for instance, was an organ scholar at Oxford and has got two thirds of the pupils learning an instrument. That compares with a London average for state secondary schools of just eight per cent. Some critics of the school said it was unrealistic to make Latin mandatory because it's simply too difficult for most children. Better to reserve Latin for the top set and have the rest do media studies. Well, that hasn't been our experience. All the children have taken Latin this year and they've all got a lot out of it. But that's largely down to our head of classics. True, she doesn't have a teacher-training certificate, but since we're a free school that didn't stop us from hiring her. There's no doubt she's qualified - she's the former head of classics at Bradfield. We were also told that Latin would put off any parent who wasn't white and middle class. Indeed, some critics said that was our motive for making the subject compulsory, effectively accusing us of being racists and snobs. The truth is, we want the children to study Latin because it's an essential component of a classical liberal education - something we believe all children should have access to, regardless of background or ability. We describe our school as a "comprehensive grammar" and it's proved a winning formula. More than 1,000 children applied for our next 120 places, making us the most over-subscribed state secondary in Hammersmith and Fulham. There's no evidence that the school appeals only to white, middle-class parents. In our first cohort of 120 pupils, 25 per cent are on free school meals and more than a third are black, Asian or minority ethnic - percentages that mirror the social and ethnic composition of the area. It turns out that small class sizes, strong discipline and high standards appeal to parents across the board, not just the privileged elite. After it became clear that the WLFS was going to be a success, our critics changed tack and argued that it was too successful. Now, apparently, we're endangering the neighbouring local authority schools by hoovering up all the most aspirational children. There are echoes here of John Prescott's famous objection to Tony Blair's city academies programme: "If you set up a school and it becomes a good school, the great danger is that everyone wants to go there." Happily, there doesn't appear to be any evidence that our neighbours have been plunged into crisis. If we are attracting highly motivated children, it's up to the other schools to raise their game. Some research carried out at the LSE recently suggests that increased competition really does raise standards. Stephen Machin and James Vernoit looked at the academies opened under Labour and found that their impact on the neighbouring schools had been positive, with exam results improving. It's too early to say whether our school will have that effect on the next-door schools, but I can report that Acton High is now teaching its pupils Latin. That's progress. What of the other free schools that opened last September? Have they been just as successful? From what I hear, they have. Five of them were fee-paying schools that are now fully funded by the taxpayer and, not surprisingly, they've proved popular with local parents. Others, such as the Free School Norwich, are so over-subscribed that their founders are in the process of setting up more schools. Amazingly, groups of parents and teachers have a better grasp of what it is that people want from a school than politicians and bureaucrats. Incredible, but true. The one criticism I have some sympathy with is that the programme isn't progressing fast enough. Mary Bousted, the General Secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, has dismissed free schools as "a flea-bite of annoyance," pointing out that we're still a long way from Michael Gove's promise of a "superb new school in every community." But we should bear in mind that another 50 will open this September and, in all likelihood, a further 75 in 2013. Not bad going when you consider Labour only managed to open 203 academies during its 13 years in office. By the end of its first term, this Government will have surpassed that number. I'd like the set-up process to be made less complex and time-consuming, so more schools could be set up by mom-and-pop groups such as mine, but the Department for Education argues that if it lowers the bar there will be a drop in quality. I think the solution is to make it easier for voluntary groups to form partnerships with experienced educational providers, including for-profit companies, and there's some evidence that's beginning to happen. In any event, I can't honestly claim to have been put off by the sheer amount of hard work. My group has applied to set up a second free school and we've just been given the green light by the Department. My ambition is to open one a year for as long as this Government lasts. Of all the things I could do with my life, I know this is the most worthwhile.