Will free schools drive up standards? Read Toby Young's guest post and join the conversation

[ElenMumsnetBloggers]

Are free schools ready to fall or fly? Do they really drive up standards or are they a snobbish gimmick? And should more parents be setting up their own schools? Journalist and producer Toby Young explains why he set up the West London Free School and what makes the free school proposition an exciting one. Join the conversation that Toby's begun and have your say on free schools.

Aha! As I predicted- a very different response in Education!

thansk wwbd

I'm interested in the "strict code of conduct, which is rigorously enforced". I would like to know how it is enforced and what allowances (if any) are made for children with SN?

How can they "drive up standards"?

It doesn't make sense.

Drive up whose standards? Their own? Schools in general? Mine?

We gave one about to open on our doorstep. Am confused by the while thing! And we also have the 3 tier schooling system here still

I remember watching the programme about West London Free School's set up. We gasped and laughed at the very long narrow "catchment band" on the map which neatly cut off the British Asian areas surrounding it.

Has this been changed? How many token students do you have from ethnic minorities and do you let the pupils of left wing parents in .

The whole system seems quite autocratic to me; is that how it is in reality?

Is TY planning to join this conversation?

Toby Come back and talk to us.

Perhaps their understanding of conversation is different from ours.

Maybe conversation means something different in Latin.

Maybe there is a conversation being conducted in Latin elsewhere that we are not party to.

Maybe we should read Shakespeare if we want the answers?

I was a great admirer of Toby's father.

"Will free schools drive up standards?"

No.

HTH.

Hic puer est stultissimus omnium!

A Question for Toby

Will you and all the founders still give as much time and attention once all of your children have grown up and left the school?

Because from what I can see this is little more than a short term vanity project.
Home schooling at the taxpayers expense.

I would like to see evidence that the founders are contracted to stay fully involved for at least 4 years after their last child leaves - as proof that it is about all children.

It is very laudable that a group of parents would devote so much time to this enterprise, I wonder how many parents in the future will dispose of the time/finances/energy for this if it relies so heavily on volunteers.

Everyone wants the best education for their child and the school looks great - however I can't help but think this is yet another nice school for already priviledged children - it would be good to see how TY comes back to tell us all by maybe revealing how many FSM children attend the school.

@ElaineReese

Is TY planning to join this conversation?

Hi Elaine,

Yes, I think Toby is planning to join the conversation a little later on - so if you have a question, feel free to put it to him!

DogStinkHorn, I deal with your point in my blogpost. We need more school places; free schools deliver those places more cheaply than the Building Schools for the Future programme did; therefore, allowing parents, teachers and voluntary groups to set up free schools means there's more money in the DfE's budget available to spend on existing schools. If your main concern is to protect the budgets of existing schools, they you should be supporting free schools, not opposing them.

rightlymoaningminnie, The average cost of building a new secondary school under the last government's Building Schools for the Future programme was £28m. Free schools will, on average, cost half as much.

For instance, the estimated set up cost of the West London Free School is £15m. The cost of setting up a neighbouring Academy that is of identical size, ? set up under the last government ? is £34m.

Toby
Everybody knows that BSF was a stupid plan.
How do your costs compare with refurbing and extending existing buildings ?
Eton has not pulled itself down and started from scratch, it just adapts and extends buildings
and an Oasis academy building is currently going up near me for 900 pupils costing £13.6 million - are YOU catering for 900 pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds for your money?

LemonDifficult, You're absolutely right. It would be perfectly possible for a local authority-run school to do exactly what the WLFS is doing. The ethos of Fortismere in Muswell Hill, for instance, isn't wildly different. But most are disinclined to do so, mainly because the head teachers and their local authority overlords misguidedly believe only children at the higher end of the ability spectrum are capable of accessing a classical liberal curriculum. Hopefully, our first tranche of GCSE and IGCSE results will prove them wrong and more schools will duplicate what we're doing.

wwbd, I tried to answer the question of why none of the staff at the West London Free went on strike in my most recent Spectator column:

www.spectator.co.uk/columnists/all/7437958/status-anxiety.thtml

hocuspontas, We currently employ one full-time member of staff who doesn't have a PGCE. She's our Head of Classics. To describe her as non-qualified would be a stretch, though, as she was formerly the Head of Classics at a leading independent school. For what it's worth, she's currently doing a PGCE part-time at Birmingham University.

In Norfolk there seems to be a pretty empirical link between school losing funding already agreed for building repairs and free schools being established. The Norwich free school is in a leased building in the centre of the city which will have a lot larger long term cost to the tax payer. The Norwich free school also causes congestion in one of Norwichs busiest streets in rush hour with lots of cars dropping individual children off.

What is the wlfs doing to make sure it includes children from disadvantaged backgrounds or children with special educational needs? What percentage of the school is looked after children?