A free school run by creationists is among more than 100 approved by the Government to open next year.

The evangelical Everyday Champions Church first proposed a free school that would teach creationism as a valid scientific theory last year.

That application was rejected by the Government on the basis that "the teaching of creationist views as a potentially valid alternative theory [to evolution] is not acceptable in a 21st-century state-funded school".

Now a new bid submitted by a group of individuals from the Church, but without its formal backing, has been accepted. The backers say Exemplar Academy in Newark, Nottinghamshire, will have a faith ethos but will not be formally designated a faith school, and will only teach creationism in RE.

Richy Thompson, campaigners manager at the British Humanist Association, said that the proposed school was "absolutely still dangerous".