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?

[flaflafla]

My child has left school now. I supported them in many ways, not just by buying a school uniform. It is my assertion that parents who refuse to spend money on school uniform for their children are generally more likely to not give a shit about their kids than parents who will. Generally parents who say "it's not up to me to do that, the government should do it for me" are not good parents and their kids do not go onto do good things.

[EmeraldJeanie]

And therefore flafla [following on from your post] those children who do not have supportive/ educationally engaged parents should not have extra barriers chucked at them.

[Waspie]

I'm obviously very late to this thread but like panicmode I'm a "founder" of a free school group. Our primary school will open in Sept 2014.

We are setting it up because we can't get our children into local schools due to oversubscription. My son is in Year 1 now at a primary over 5 miles away (closest available with spaces). In my son's year 10 children didn't get into the catchment school, this year it's 20 and these 20 children are being bused to a school 8 miles away. We need a school locally.

Our school uniform will be as cheap as all the other local state primaries and our catchment area is 1.5mile radius from the school gate. No picking and choosing, just based on location. We're following the council admissions process.

We're currently in the middle of our first local consultation process.

Clearly not all free schools are the same.

[EmeraldJeanie]

Waspie it does sound like your Free School being set up because of full local schools rather than because of a fear of the local schools.
Good luck.

[morethanpotatoprints]

FLAFLAFLA

I am not buying any school uniform, and when I did it was cheap as chips. I am on our third child to support through education and our last one dd I H.ed. So spending money has jack to do with supporting your dc.
You hold a very narrow attitude, that imo needs revising.

[Waspie]

Thanks EmeraldJeanie

I hadn't realised so many Free Schools were selective. I'm rather surprised that these schools got away with this in their original proposals. Our proposal was subjected to very rigorous scrutiny, screening and interviews by the DFE. We also need to follow the local authorities admissions process so can't pick and choose outside of this. Basically all we could specify was the limit of the radius of our catchment area (our LA still has catchment areas). Ours is certainly only being opened to satisfy need caused by hundreds of new houses being built and rising birth-rate.

I agree that opening a free school is probably is a "middle class" thing to do (and we are in a middle class area) and our founder group is made up of managers, accountants, solicitors etc. so perhaps we're not very "working" class but we don't want selective education, we want decent state education for all the local children whether on FSM or the child of the CEO of UniLever!

[Waspie]

I also think it's pretty cruddy that the government will not allow LA's to open schools. They are expecting parents to donate their time (and this is considerable I can tell you) to setting up a school for other people's children. My son will be in year 2 by the time our school opens to foundation year. I have no younger children who will benefit. So there is no personal gain. I'm involved because I'm still so angry that the council is so rubbish that they didn't identify the problem before it affected the last two years intake.

Selective schooling by virtue of being a Free School is wrong, but not all free schools are like this.

[nlondondad]

Indeed not all Free Schools are the same. In fact this is in line with the Government claim that Free Schools encourage diversity of provision in the education system. So there are Free Schools (Like Waspies) promoted by parents, bur actually less than a quarter of Free Schools are like this.
Then there are Free Schools promoted by individual teachers, who if their bid is successful get to be a Head without the tedious business of having to apply for the job. A few of these.

Then the Free Schools promoted by religious groups, some quite mainstream like the Church of England, others rather less mainstream like evangelical Christian groups, who dont believe in evolution, and the Steiner Anthroposophists who believe ..well better look that up for your selves as discussion of Steiner tends to get heated. But all paid for by the taxpayers. A complication is a number are promted by charities some of which are religious and some are not, not always easy to tell.

Then the schools being promoted, despite the fact that they are not allowed to make profits by for profit companies. Rutherford House is one of the last.

[nlondondad]

A point about the Rutherford House rules for uniform is not only is a bookbag compulsory but so is a rucksack!

[EmeraldJeanie]

Bet not 3 quid book bags either...

[EmeraldJeanie]

At our state primary book bags given to children in Reception. Only pay if have to replace it- 3 pounds. Also although official book bag preferred not compulsory and other bags acceptable.

[nlondondad]

Yes in the school I am a governor bookbags (with the school logo, and cheap they are also) are provided as a convenience, they are not compulsory and every one uses them in practice. But to have a rucksack as well as a COMPULSORY item... my children never used a rucksack at primary anyway.

[zower]

Gosh when people start (literally) moaning about £3 bookbags as their only raison d'etre for being on a thread, which are not fucking compulsory anyway, you realise there are some seious weirdos on Mumsnet at any given time, completely removed from the real world.

[EmeraldJeanie]

Weirdo yourself zower.....
You know nowt about my raison d'etra..

[EmeraldJeanie]

And my goodness- after the school meeting I've just been to there is no doubt that I am not removed from reality. But hey, my reality probably very different to yours Zower...or at least my view of reality.

[EmeraldJeanie]

Sorry- think we are entering playground territory here .

[nlondondad]

Has to besaid tho' that Zower's intervention surely ofdd as no one was moaning about three pound bookbags...

It was about a uniform costing, it would seem, north of 300 pounds I was moaning about, of which a bookbag is a small bit, and by no means the most objectionable feature. Uniform wellington boots? (!)

[Floggingmolly]

How did they poach the children from surrounding school? Sounds most unlikely.

[nlondondad]

Where was the reference to poaching?

Anyway in the case of Rutherford House School, what I suppose I am accusing them of is using the uniform policy, and cost, to exclude, for example parents on free school meals.

But whether they draw in children who otherwise would go to an ordinary school would depend in large part as to how many places there are in the area. if there is a shortage of places then poaching as such not relevant except that if the school successfully targets the professional middle classes, then that could affect the composition of neighbouring schools I suppose.

[Waspie]

Free schools are certainly not getting great press at the moment. just this morning the news that the Al-Madinah Islamist free school in Derby has been closed BBC News link

[EmeraldJeanie]

The ofsted report will certainly be interesting I think Waspie.
In this incident I am glad Free Schools under the umbrella of ofsted.

[Waspie]

The creation of niche religious schools as free schools sits uncomfortably with me, so I'm glad free schools have to be Ofsted inspected too EmeraldJeanie. For me, state schooling should be open to all, totally equal opportunity

[nlondondad]

Having spent some time as a child in Northern Ireland I regard the creation of religious schools where they do not exist already as mad; where this has the effect of enabling ethnic segregation worse than mad.

[Crowler]

Surely 300 for 75% of a child's wardrobe is not extortionate.

If you feel so strongly about it, form a committee to form a free school of your own vision.

[friday16]

In this incident I am glad Free Schools under the umbrella of ofsted.

How can an Ofsted inspection proceed when the school is closed for "Health and Safety" reasons? Are the lesson observations going to be a bit weak?