AIBU to feel that Free Schools are creaming off middle-class families and creating division?

[KeepOnRockinginthefreeworld]

Name change as I've been thinking about this for a while...

We have a Free School in our area. It's generally felt to be successful, has a waiting list, and plans to expand at some point. BUT while it was founded "to create extra spaces", its intake seems to mostly to consist of children poached from the surrounding schools (the remainder are bussed in by parents from miles away). The uniform is entirely bespoke from a private school supplier, so no Tesco items, it's about £300 plus for a full set.

Now, I totally get that Free schools are there for "choice" but my concern is that this seems to be selection-by-stealth: they are trumpetting it as a "naice" school, "better" and more privileged than the local community schools (which are perfectly OK) . The parents who transfer to them tend to be the ones with money for the uniform/aspirational for the "best" for their child, and those children have a much lower level of SEN and pupil premium .....it just seems unfair to me that children in the area whose parents have low income, multiple DC, or aren't pushy don't have the same opportunity within the state sector. Everyone has the right to a good education and the Free Schools just seem like an excuse for middle-class parents to remove themselves from the mix of intake that is in the community while getting subsidised to do so.

Can I ask AIBU by feeling uncomfortable about this segregation? Is this just peculiar to the free school in our area? Are there other free schools near you where the uniform is cheap, they aren't creaming off children from surrounding school, and all children from the area are genuinely welcomed irrespective of ability and income?

not all private schools have expensive uniform

local one

school blazer £20-32 depending on size

school logo fleece lined waterproof coat with hood £18-30

pale blue shirts ( any store)

girls grey knee length skirt younger ones can wear pinafore

older girls kilt school or family tartan ( most expensive item upto £50)

boys grey trousers/shorts in summer or kilt

tie £5

black shoes no heels anywhere

grey tights/socks anywhere

school jumper £10-14

scarfs/hats gloves/ hair accessories navy blue

I knew someone who was on the set-up board of a free school. She told her mates exactly when the admission book was opening so they wouldn't apply late and get stuck on a waiting list, and about half a dozen of the yummier mummies from her DC's class mysteriously transferred overnight en masse. I suppose that's just supply and demand, they all seem happy over there.

Aethelfleda - we had to publish and then follow the admissions criteria we had published as carefully as any other school as we didn't want to have any costly appeals. The admissions code was scrutinised by the DfE lawyers with a fine toothcomb before we could advertise it. I would find it very odd if they were able to 'apply late and get stuck on a waiting list'. They must have all met the criteria for places?!

The one that's opened by me used to be an independent school - the parents are delighted that the taxpayer will now be paying their children's school fees, so they can pocket the money.... I do not think that this is what free schools should be doing, as it means that the money for education in the county will now be spread much more thinly, so that state schools will get less.

I don't think it was suspicious/below board in any way panicmode, I think it was more that the person in question just wanted company she liked and made sure all her preferred parents were well aware the school was opening.

Isn't free school admission criteria " live within the x-mile cachement , apply first and you're in"? With the usual caveats of looked-after and medical-need children getting priority? And then presumably something to do with distance from school as a tiebreaker? (Correct me if I'm wrong!)

So if you only find out about the school later on (eg when there's publicity/notice in the paper) you're more likely to be told it's already full?

No, you can't jump the criteria just because you have applied early. As with LEA funded schools, the process is that the admissions window opens, people apply over the course of the 12 weeks or whatever it is, and then at the deadline, everyone's application is ranked according to the admissions criteria. So if all of her friends got in, it must be because they all met the criteria and nothing to do with people having applied first UNLESS their admissions code stated that priority would be given to those who applied first. But I would find it extraordinary that the DfE would sign off on an admissions code which allowed that to happen.

You sound like you know a lot more about it than I do!
I don't honestly know what the admissions code was, she was a nice lady and I think was just very enthusiastic about the school. Which I guess is what the dept of education have been saying free schools should be about: enthusiastic, involved parents.

I too am on a committee setting up a Free School and opening in September - so the admissions code was one of the key things that we had to get right and make as fair as possible. I can assure you that one cannot get one's friends' children precedence!!

Yes, they should be about enthusiastic, involved parents, but the amount of work and time that we have all given means that it's usually the preserve of a middle class sort of place - most people just simply do not have the time to give to the process unless, like our committee, you are lucky enough to have a lot of professionals on maternity leave/taking career breaks prepared to put in a LOT of effort!

Free schools = enthusiastic, involved parents..
That will mean those may remove themselves from nearby community schools to the detriment socially and academically to the community school.
Community school = mixed intake [up to a point as...]
Free school = enthusiastic/ involved parents /er hem ones sharp elbowed middle classes...

A bit after the fact, but to MalcolmTucker'sMum, I was only talking about the "dreadful braying types" I saw on telly. On a different thread I mentioned "teeth to tattoo ratio", surely that evens things up a little? .

The problem about "free Schools" so far as I can see is that there are really, two quite different types.

Those that actually do live up to the Government rhetoric in that they are:-

"all-ability state-funded schools set up in response to what local people say they want and need in order to improve education for children in their community."

As from the DFe website.

@PanicMode may well be promoting just such a school. Note two points:

1. PanicMode's comment that the nature of the (unpaid) work involved and the amount of it means that such parent groups are not likely to be that common, nor typical of the general population.

1. It also makes a big difference if there is a shortage of school places in the area. Local Authorities are forbidden to open new schools now, they all have to be Free Schools. So any area that needs a new school gets a Free School or nothing.

And then there is the other sort of Free School which I will post about next...

Now for the second type.

This one is being set up by a profit making company. The site they are planning to use is worth on the market, in the region of ten million pounds, however it is being requistioned by Mr Gove from Islington Council, who own the land and wanted to sell it at a discounted price to a Housing Association to use it for social housing. So the company get this publically owned asset for nothing. Moreover in this part of London there is no shortage of school places. Further Islington Schools loose at least 3 million capital funding for essential repairs which would have come from the sale to the Housing Association.

I have blogged about it here:

www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2013/06/the-new-islington-free-school/

I also started a thread on mumsnet here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/education/1792362-What-do-you-think-of-the-plan-for-a-new-free-School-in-Islington

This was my OP on that thread.

"This January an Islington Community School, Ashmount, vacated its old building and site near Hornsey lane, London N19 and moved to a magnificent new building on a lovely site in Crouch Hill Park N8 a short distance done the road in January of this year. The future of the school has been secured.

Islington expected to raise at least some of the cost of the new building for Ashmount by selling the old site, at a discounted price to a housing association. They thought they would get about 3 million, but if sold on the open market, the site large, and in between Highgate and Crouch End would have raised ten million. The Council were in effect making a political decision to sacrifice money for social housing. Housing which they had promised to build in their election manifesto on which they had successfully defeated the outgoing Liberal democrat administration.

Last week it was learnt that the Education Funding Agency has chosen to requisition the old Ashmount Site from Islington Council, which they have the power to do, without paying any compensation to the Council.

The site is to be transferred without charge to private ownership; the site will be given to Bellevue Education Limited for a Free School. Bellevue Education Ltd is a commercial (for profit) company, which runs a chain of nine for profit fee paying schools here, and in Switzerland. Bellevue made profits last year of £1.5m on a turnover of £3.7m, so it?s what I believe one would call ?a nice little business?. Although if you want to rush out and buy some shares you cannot at the moment as they are not publically listed. Instead the investors are venture capitalists based in Switzerland using Russian money. Perhaps there will be a flotation at some point in the future. I am sure we will be all poised to add a bit of diversity to our share portfolios."

I guess it depends if you live in a crappy area with knife crime and an aggressive, catonic "attituuuuude" at local schools (where I live this is the norm).

Is that segregation, to not want your child to grow up with that shite??

£300 for a uniform? If you care about your children, and that's the only barrier, it seems a small price to pay.

nlondondad I am on the committee of the first sort of Free School!

If there isn't demand for the second sort of free school in that location, then presumably they won't be able to open. Our contract with the EFA states that we must have x% of our roll filled by x date or the funding for the school will get pulled. So, if no-one enrols, then there won't be a school, the land will probably revert to the council and they can then sell to the HA for the housing.....

@PanicMode

Really interested to hear about the conditions attached to enrolment. is that information every made public do you know? One of the concerns being expressed about the proposed Free School is that with a marketing blitz behind it paid by for the commercial sponsor, they would get some children, not fill themselves, and cause (expensive) vacancies in local schools....

I guess it depends - obviously every school will have different conditions, but you could submit a FOI perhaps - although they don't have to respond until the school is actually in existence.

One of the hardest things for Free Schools has been securing premises at competitive rates - I obviously have no knowledge of the school you are referring to, other than what you have stated here, but I find it hard to believe that the EFA are not having to compensate the Council at all. Having been through the process, several schools which were (we thought) close to being given the final seal of approval had their funding pulled at the 11th hour (certainly after offers had gone out) because they weren't full enough. I thought that Free Schools were only being given final DfE approval in areas where there is a significant shortage of places. Where we are, there is a huge problem with primary places (which is why I think we succeeded). A secondary would have far bigger problems securing funding because there is a half empty, brand new school which is building up to capacity but has a few years to go yet.

Recently my child attended a local prep school. However the owner of this prep school sold her chain of Schools and nurseries to a Global Educational Charity. She took her money and disappeared for a few years, Only to pop up Three years later and opened a Free School 0.6 miles from her old Prep School. The uniform was modelled on our prep school uniform all but the colour. She advertised this new Free School as a community School with small class sizes. Now over run with nearly 400 children. She then started to approach parents as she knew them from Nursery upwards from her old prep School and had laid the foundations knowing that she had already educated them, therefore picking the cream of the crop for her new school.
we are suddenly told in February that our prep school is no longer viable and will close this summer term. No consultation, warning, time to get our kids into another school. We were told that the charity had signed a Non Disclosure agreement and this was the decision of the board of trustees the week beforehand.
Then to add insult to injury we are told that the lease on our building had another Ten years to run but the Charity surrendered it early to the Landlord so that a Free School 0.6 miles away is going to take the building over due to expansion.
All of the parents were disgusted as we then found out that this Free School knew before us that they had secured our building as they were toasting this result with champagne at the same time as we were being told.

why are middle class children 'the cream' ?

Its just a perception/Term the cream, Katie Hopkins would not be impressed if she knew my Dc name whilst attending a prep school, because like me my DC is as common as Del Boy and proud of it...

'creaming off' means taking the best! In the case of a grammar school they do 'cream off' but there is no reason why MC kids schould be the cream.

I would say that YABU because you're generalising. As others have said, many areas have a drastic shortage of places (particularly at primary level it seems ) and free schools are filling the vacuum.

Yes, they will be set up by middle class parents because by and large they have more time and resource at their disposal. But so what? Why is that seen as an intrinsically bad thing by so many people? Why should people be content to settle with a state sector that seems to be failing to even provide places never mind in decent schools. I get the concerns about using things like expensive uniforms as a sort of screening device and I have sympathy with them but really, if that's all it comes down to I think I don't think it's a sufficient argument to just carry on with the same system that seems to be failing so many children - mainly poorer ones it seems.

And yes I also fail to understand why middle class children are "the cream." The people failed by the drive to mediocrity that seems to be the preferred option of the left when it comes to schooling are children from the less privileged backgrounds that are condemned by crap schooling to more of the same,

Our new free school has been set up in a deprived area where there is a real need to help parents and children to engage with school and with learning. I could bang on about it all day but ill just pop a link on instead westnewcastleacademy.org/contact-us/school-info/videos/

The uniform is a logoed sweatshirt (£3), white polo shirt, grey trousers, jeans or joggers and wellies for outdoors and slippers or plimsolls for indoors. I think it's probably as far from a middle class haven as you can get. I'm very excited and I am applying for my DS for September 2014.

@PanicMode.

The site is being requisitioned from Islington Council by the Secretary of State using powers granted to him by the Academies Act 2011. (This has arisen because the site was in use for a school. When Ashmount left the Council wanted to sell it to a Housing Association to build social housing. However they could not sell it without declaring it surplus to educational requirements, when they did that under the 2011 Act the Secretary of State could take it for a Free School. he has now done this.)

@PanicMode

You wrote:

"I thought that Free Schools were only being given final DfE approval in areas where there is a significant shortage of places."

Not so; or at least by no means always.

One of the stated aims of the Free School program is to increase competition. (The idea is that competition between schools is a way of driving up educational quality.)

For an education "market" to work parents need to have a real choice between schools. Free Schools are seen as a good way to provide that choice, and also for a choice to exist there needs to be a surplus of school places. So a number of Free Schools have been approved where there is no shortage of places. But of course, as you have just pointed out, if, in the event, there is not enough demand for a Free School it does not go ahead.

There is obviously a really difficult line for the DFE to tread between providing "enough" competition supported by spare capacity, and too much. And of course it all comes down to money.

Also some parents with no place for their child in their area may wonder why Government money is being spent on creating extra places where enough places already exist. Which is what is happening in the case of the old Ashmount site.