High-flying pupils offered £500 'bribe' to enrol at new free school sixth form New College Pontefract will open sixth-form 'New College Doncaster' in 2016 School is offering £500 to joiners with more than five GCSE A grades Move heavily criticised by education expert for 'unethical use of public funds' By Jack Crone for MailOnline and Laura Clark, Education Correspondent for the Daily Mail New College Pontefract, run by principal Pauline Hagen (pictured), is offering £500 to high-flying students as an incentive to join their new sixth-form A flagship government free school has been accused of wasting public money by offering high-flying students a £500 'incentive' to join a their new sixth-form. New College Doncaster will hand out the "academic scholarship" to all applicants on course for at least five A grades in their GCSEs. Yesterday, critics branded the incentive "bribery" and not an "ethical" use of public funds. It is thought to be the first time a school has sought effectively to pay high-achieving pupils to sign up to attend. Schools have previously offered money or prizes for good attendance or meeting exam targets. Nearby New College Pontefract applied to the Department for Education last month to set up the school, with the opening planned for 2016. The school will be run as part of the Coalition's 'free school' programme - which allows teachers, parents and charities to open new educational institutions independent of local council control. The application said Doncaster "needs a new college because its young people are missing out on an outstanding sixth-form experience." To open, the college needs signatures from 1,000 parents, which Pauline Hagen, principal at New College Pontefract, in West Yorkshire, says has already been achieved. It is hoping to open in 2016 with 500 sixth-formers, rising to 1,200 after three years. The website for the new sixth-form advertises an 'academic scholarship' in which: 'If you are predicted to achieve more than five A grades in your GCSEs, we will offer you the opportunity to receive £500 and a place in our Excellence Academy to support your post-16 education.' The proposed sum of £500 has been described as an 'incentive', but the college were not able to say how much it would cost in total. Richard Fletcher, vice principal at New College, told Academies Week all eligible students would be paid the £500, but 'we wouldn't know how many students would receive this until we opened.' A number of free schools have come up against criticism in recent years for opening with very low attendance, with one in south London taking just 17 pupils in September. Stephen Gorard, professor of education and public policy at Durham University, has expressed concern over the use of public money to encourage enrolments in this manner. He said: 'I have never heard of this before and I can't see that it would be an ethical use of funding, given that it would cost money from the public purse that could have been spent on something else.' The college, in West Yorks., is believed to be the first to offer a cash incentive encouraging teenagers to apply He also raised concerns over the social repercussions it could have on pupils who eventually join. He added: 'There is a correlation between attainment at 16 and family background and advantage and therefore this funding incentive doesn't seem right to me. The concern I would have is that if the money incentive attracts the highest-attaining students in the area, then the mix of students at the school might end up with a more socially segregated system because of the association with the attainment of post-16 and social background. The move follows a similar system operated by universities across the UK which offer a series of incentives to encourage high-achieving students to apply - including huge discounts on tuition fees, free text books and subsidised accommodation. The Department for Education is due to confirm next month whether the sixth-form college has been given approval to progress to the next stage of the applications process. This year, New College Pontefract received an Ofsted rating of outstanding.