The Seckford Foundation for Free Schools Trust has had a leaflet promoting its new Beccles Free School banned by the ASA for making "misleading" claims about its headteacher and the results of its pre-registration inspection.

The Suffolk-based school, which opened its gates on 6 September 2012, received two complaints about a leaflet promoting the school. The first related to a claim that the headteacher, John Lucas, was the "director of learning for Cambridgeshire" when in fact he was only the director of learning at one school in Cambridgeshire, rather than the whole county. The second referred to a claim that the school had passed its pre-inspection "with flying colours", while pre-registration inspections provide only a "likely to meet" or "not likely to meet" qualification for criteria. 

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) found that on both counts the leaflet was "misleading" and that the claims regarding its pre-registration inspection were "exaggerated in their nature".

The Trust is not to publish the advertisement again in its current form and was warned not to exaggerate the extent of the headteacher's previous experience or the results of the inspection. 

The Trust currently runs three free schools, funded by the government: Beccles, Ixworth and Saxmundham.  The latter opened at the same time as Beccles while Ixworth is intending to open in September 2014.