To think this Free School was not a good idea? and there is something wrong with the way in which the DfE measures demand for a school.

[nlondondad]

A story has appeared in a Wolverhampton paper. This is an edited version of the story, full story available at the link below.

"Anand Primary School opened its doors in Wolverhampton in September last year.

But it can today be revealed the body set up to oversee the running of the school has agreed to relinquish its control amid fears about the low number of pupils - just 20 - on the school roll.

Headteacher Kulbinder Kaur Pouni, who took up her post in September 2013, told the Express & Star she had resigned and would be leaving on September 1.

Anand Primary aims to have 420 pupils on its books by 2019....

...But only 20 children started classes last September - 40 fewer than the initial target of 60 starts.

And a letter from the Wolverhampton Local Education Authority sent out to governors in February stated only 14 pupils had put the school down as first choice for next year...."

www.expressandstar.com/education/2014/06/24/headteacher-quits-citys-first-free-school/

I really don't understand why people build or sign off schools with no call for them locally. It's just not that hard to plan a school where it is needed and not where it isn't.

I must be missing something?

I agree that this is absolutely illustrative of the underlying failure of the entire free school initiative: it appears that the DfE is so desperate for free schools to open that it is prepared to throw millions of pounds worth of public money at virtually anyone who wants to open one. That is particularly the case with primary schools, since the DfE is embarrassed at the low rate of take-up of academy status amongst them. There are far too many stories coming out of free school and academy disasters of one sort or another, and it stems from the lack of any sort of overall control.

We are rapidly reaching the point where the DfE is going to have to acknowledge this and put in place some sort of effective control system. It would, of course, have to be local to each area. Hmmm, maybe you could ask local authorities to sort it out?

In a way this is quite encouraging. Wolverhampton has a sizeable Sikh population (about 25,000) more than enough to fill a school and the message from the Sikh community in Wolvo seems to be, 'we are quite happy to have our children in non-faith schools, we don't want to seperate ourselves from the community we are part of.'

Mind you if I had a toss up between a Sikh school and CofE/Catholic school, I'd pick the Sikh one. Sikhism is a non-proslytising religion, so it wouldn't be like they would be out to brain-wash non sikh kids.

As far as I am aware parents have the right to refuse a place in a Church school because of religious beliefs, unless this has changed. I would be more concerned about the educational experience of people running Free schools, and if I lived in Bushbury or Bilston, I would not want my children bussed to the former Orchard centre in Great Brickkiln Street.

Parents have the right to refuse a place in any school, not just a religious one. But they then have no right to be allocated an alternative.

As far as bussing children to a free school is concerned, who would pay for the transport? I think it would probably be up to the free school to make the arrangements.

I was thinking about bussing in relation to the school wanting to increase it's intake. There is a secondary academy in Wolverhampton which has its own fleet of buses, and is oversubscribed for that reason in spite of being bottom of the league tables.

Certainly a Free School could make such an arrangement for bussing; but it would have to be paid for, presumably by the parents using it.