Eric Pickles talks exclusively with the Weekly News...

I fully welcome the news that the Department for Education has approved applications for two new free schools in the constituency.

The Grove House School will offer specialist provision for children with severe speech, language and communication impairment in order to address the problem of the lack of suitable placements for these children in Essex.

I was very impressed by the dedication and determination shown by the Grove House School team to bring this specialist education to Brentwood.

I know there are children from Brentwood and Ongar who are struggling in mainstream schools despite careful SEN plans being in place, or having to travel long distances to get the help they need.

Grove House School promises to be a free school which will meet a specific demand and I have no doubt it will be of great benefit to many children with communication difficulties in years to come.

The Ongar Academy has also been given the go ahead to open in Ongar in September 2015, bringing secondary education back to the town for the first time since Ongar Comprehensive closed in 1989.

I am aware there has been a desire for some time for children in Ongar to be able to continue their education in the town rather than having to travel to Brentwood or Epping for secondary school provision.

A great deal of work was undertaken by the Ongar Academy team to try to make this desire a reality and hope the return of secondary education to Ongar is as successful as hoped.

The children of Brentwood have already benefitted from the education offered by the town’s first free school, Becket Keys, and from the excellent work continuing to be done by the established secondary schools in the town to raise standards and set our children on a firm footing for their future.

Nothing is more important than providing our children with the excellent education they deserve, and I look forward to seeing how the two new schools offer new choices to parents in Brentwood and Ongar.