An international free school provider due to open a new primary school in Surbiton has said it has found a potential site.

Last year the Educational Funding Authority (EFA) granted permission to Gems Learning Trust to open the two-form entry Surbiton Primary Academy, but the trust was forced to stall on its plans to open this year after failing to find a suitable location.

An announcement on the site is expected soon. Jodie Croft, from Gems, said: “We were struggling to find a site so had to delay our plans.

“We have now found a site and the Educational Funding Authority is going through a process at the moment to try to acquire it.

But nothing is set in stone, although it looks positive.

“We will be opening admissions in September.”

The company already owns and runs 46 schools around the world, including in the United Arab Emirates. It is also due to open Twickenham Primary Academy in neighbouring Richmond this September.

Another free school that has been late in opening is Kingston Community School, which will be run by Christian group Chapel St.

In February the Surrey Comet revealed schoolchildren would have to spend at least one year in temporary classrooms in a yet-to-be disclosed Norbiton building after the EFA deemed the office block they had purchased for the school themselves as not yet fit for purpose.