The latest venture for a successful businessman? His own school

For Jon De Maria, a nearby derelict hospital represents an opportunity to plug an important gap in his local area's schooling

Jon De Maria, a self-employed business man, is one of hundreds of parents applying to set up his own school. Today, the government published the forms that parents, charities, teachers and others must fill in to do this. De Maria, together with 3,000 other parents, is intent on creating a new school near his home in Battersea, south London. He says when children come out of one of the three primary schools in his neighbourhood, they go to 49 different secondary schools, none of which are local.

Today, he is visiting possible sites for the new school, which he hopes will eventually take 650 pupils aged 11 to 16, with an extra 150 in the sixth form. A derelict hospital and an empty school building are two possibilities.

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