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.

Mrs Jamin ' The intake for this will mostly be from a very diverse area including council housing and areas of deprivation.' ....but primarily from the primary school opened by the same group as I said in my earlier post!!
A letter printed in todays local paper confirms that priority access will be given to the children from that very primary school ahead of all other children in the catchment area - information only made available because of a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

And the ordure starts to interact with the ventilation device
www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25059495

Too bloody true talkingpeace (having been at a governors' meeting last night discussing our £10k DEFICIT.)

The free schools failures (fraud/mismanagement/poor quality of education, etc) are making me SOOOOOOO MAD (yes, I am shouting). How much has been wasted on these money wasting enterprises? How many millions of pounds?

Where necessary, the LA could have opened another school. All teacher would be working to the same standards. Why wasn't that done?

Aloowing any Tom, Dick or Harry to open a free school with the offer of loads of money is an invitation for someone to try to pull a fast one. The idea is naive.

That wouldn't have passed the SPaG test, would it?

Talkinpeace said "Most free schools do not take SEN kids"

Show me a free school admissions policy that excludes them Talkinpeace!

Children with SEN statements that name the school will be prioritised for entry. It's illegal to do otherwise.

However I suspect most authors of SEN statements, and parents of SEN children, would want a school to be up and running for a while, with a demonstrable track record, before naming it as their school of choice. That's why the numbers are low. Because they're new schools, not becasue they're free schools.