Place Group was appointed in January 2020 by the Altus Education Partnership to provide pre-opening support for the Edgar Wood Academy, which was proposed to open in September 2022. However, due an urgent need for school places, the school opening date was moved forward to September 2021 following discussions with the DfE and LA. Place Group was able to mobilise quickly and accelerate all work streams in order to help deliver a school earlier than originally proposed. This included principal designate benchmarking, governance, finance, education policy development, section 10 consultation and capital works. We also helped develop and implement a comprehensive marketing strategy which helped ensure the school was oversubscribed for the first year of operation.