What “Free Schools” mean

Submitted by Matthew on 16 May, 2012 - 6:41

24 free schools have opened in the UK and many more are planned to open next September.

Free Schools, after academies, are the second bow in the government’s plans to privatise education, under the guises of giving parents greater “choice”. Further expansion will have extremely damaging consequences for comprehensive state education.

So far there has been less resistance to free schools then academies. This is partly because you cannot have a fight from within in a school that doesn’t exist.

The free schools agenda offers a certain style of education aimed at niche audiences, with no public accountability and many freedoms that set it apart from the mainstream.

The programme encourages social segregation, sets schools up to compete rather than collaborate, and could be the means by which the Tories introduce state-funded schools which are profit-making businesses.

Free schools were originally proposed as an opportunity for parents to get together and open a school tailored to the specific needs of their children. This is not the way the policy has been realised.

Even if it were, there would be serious problems. How many parents feel able to go through the demanding and time-consuming process of applying to open and then running a school? How would they choose who they wanted to go to school with their child? Why would they have the necessary knowledge and experience to make good decisions about teaching and learning?

Educational consultancy organisations, charities and religious groups are behind most free schools.

Although it is currently against the law for these groups to make profit out of their schools, if the UK follows the Swedish model, schools as profit-making businesses will not be far away.

Free schools are outside local authority control and are therefore not democratically accountable. Free school governing bodies can have less parental and staff representation; they have greater control over the curriculum they teach and the children they enrol.

Although many free schools claim to adhere to the local authority admissions policies, recent research shows 75% of free schools have a lower percentage of children eligible for free school meals than their local average. In the absence of explicit selection procedures, covert selection of students may include having a compulsory uniform that is expensive, holding interviews for prospective children and parents, and having high exclusion rates.

This ensures a group of students who are generally more likely to “succeed” within the limited remit of assessed educational standards.

As free schools will need to buy in services for students with special needs at added cost, these schools may not be the most inclusive of places.

Some free schools, such as Toby Young’s new grammar school in west London — marketed as a place to go to get lessons in Latin — have been set up as a direct alternative to the community state education provided in local comprehensive schools.

In other cases a free school trust may not intend to compete with local schools, and yet through its very existence, does. That’s what the choice agenda is about. Predictably, free schools have attracted more middle class parents and children, impacting upon the true comprehensive nature of surrounding schools.

The funding of free schools is siphoned off from local authority budgets. As the pot of money that supports all other local schools gets smaller, centrally provided services are harder to maintain. In theory, free schools get no more money per child than community schools; yet many operate on very small intakes, attracting parents who would opt for a private school if they could afford it.

Working outside of national agreements on terms and conditions for teachers and support staff makes workers vulnerable to having their pay being cut and workload increased, in order to make these small intake schools financially viable.

Free schools are bad news. If allowed to flourish they will be another nail in the coffin of comprehensive community education.

A good local school for all!

Case study: Canary Wharf College

Canary Wharf College took over the premises of the Docklands Pupil Referral Unit as the local authority could not afford to make the adjustments to the building Ofsted deemed necessary for it to be an adequate building for young people to be educated in.

The free school defines itself as Christian in ethos and therefore can select 50% of its intake on religious grounds. It was advertised in private nurseries and gated housing estates which sit inside a community where the majority live in social housing and which has a substantial Bengali population.

Canary Wharf College mirrors the polarised social circumstances of the Isle of Dogs community — the towers of finance and penthouse apartments with river views on one side of the road, the working-class community whose locality has changed beyond all recognition thanks to a “regeneration” programme, from which ordinary people have benefitted not a jot, on the other.

It is not cynical or neurotic to see the opening of this school as an appeal to the bankers of its namesake.

One look at the website or the school badge confirms this.

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.