Parents are celebrating after the Department for Education formally backed plans for a mixed, non-denominational free school in East Finchley.

The Archer Academy’s chair of governors Avis Johns has signed the funding agreement with the department, meaning plans to open the school in September will go ahead.

A group of parents have been campaigning to set up a free school for two years after discovering a lack of mixed, non-selective, non-denominational secondary schools in Finchley and Golders Green.

The school will specialise in Maths and English and says it has "a vision" based on three core principles: realising potential, inspiring creativity and engaging with the community.

The first 150 pupils will be taught at the Hampstead Garden Institute this September, although a permanent school will be built on the site of the former Herbert Wilmot Centre and Stanley Road playing fields.

Chairman of governors Avis Johns, whose daughter Carmel will be one of the school's first intake, said: "The journey from my sofa, where the Archer Academy was first envisaged, to signing the Funding Agreement at the Department for Education has been a long, hard, but utterly exciting one.

"The Department for Education has described us as the 'gold standard' for free schools and I can assure you all that we will strive to maintain this title, through to opening and beyond."

Mick Quigley, the school's headteacher, said: "This part of north London has long been in need of a school like the Archer Academy and I am delighted that the Department for Education has formally recognised the strength of our plans and the steps we have taken to achieve them.

“The Archer Academy will be an outstanding school at the heart of its community, providing a broad, challenging and ambitious education for local children of all backgrounds and all abilities. I am really looking forward to welcoming our first pupils to the school in September."