Free school in Newcastle being closed down

[wonderfulwelshwench]

Not sure if my link below will work. Ofsted are clung the school because of serious behaviour and safeguarding concerns, plus the kids are making zero progress.
AIBU to be horrified that the government allowed this kids to be basically used in an experiment that's clearly gone badly wrong? Just fund existing schools so they can provide a quality education! This is the outcome of Toby Twatface Young's vanity project. It's shocking!

www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jun/15/flagship-free-school-had-group-of-predatory-pupils-roaming-grounds?CMP=fb_gu

Just fund existing schools so they can provide a quality education!

I'd have said this, till I saw how some academies in England being managed. Business managers in full time roles while apprenticeships are given to those actually working with the children, meals provided by 3rd parties which have extra cost added on, funds not being used correctly for SEN children. The free schools are the more obvious, but these self run academies are failing the children to run like a business.

I think you had to be a very brave or naive parent to send your child to any of the free schools that were set up. Many of them have been closed or have closed, where do those kids go then? Into the overcrowded existing schools they could have gone to in the first place.

I think the parents have some responsibility in ensuring their DCs are getting a good education and moving schools if not.

I think it's unfair to say all free schools are bad. I work in a free school and we are way oversubscribed have a 2 year waiting list and expect to be graded good or possibly good with out standing features when we get Ofsted. We know this because we have people who come check on us before Ofsted and they tell us this. The school I work is has changed the lives of some of the pupils who attend it - we know this because their parents tell us. So please don't automatically assume every free school is failing or bad.

I didn't read the link but friends of mine moved to a very expensive town to put their dc into a bilingual free school that was in its infancy and I thought they were completely mad. My thought we're confirmed when the first OFSTED report came out and it was inadequate in most areas. Five years on though I've eaten my words as they have bilingual dc and the school is now good/very good in all areas.

The concept of having 'alternative' styles of education actually sounds good - in theory! Something hasn't quite worked with the Free School idea. I don't know why. I would love to find an alternative style of secondary education for my daughter than the academic exam exam exam and obsessed with uniform type that is only available now. It's a shame it hasn't worked. Perhaps the government should look at why parents wanted alternative schools in the first place (and the high numbers of Home Ed children there are now) and the government should properly be funding and running them rather than just letting any Tom, Dick and Harriet do it.