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.

Snapespeare, I would imagine very few parent wants their DCs to be educated alongside disruptive children, but free schools don't have special status in this regard. You're assuming free schools can refuse to admit children they've identified as potentially disruptive, but that would be a breach of the School Admissions Code of Practice which all state schools, including free schools, are bound by. In addition, free schools are legally obliged to take their fair share of hard-to-place children in their local area, i.e. children who've been permanently excluded from neighbouring schools.

We don't tolerate any disruptive behaviour at the West London Free School. Any child disrupting a class is immediately removed from that class and there's a steadily escalating series of punishments. So far, this has worked well and we haven't had to permanently exclude anyone.

ElaineReese? Are you an old-fashioned Tory? I can't imagine anyone other than a die-hard defender of the English class system describing the aim of wanting all the children at a mixed ability, fully comprehensive school to go to top universities as "offensive".

I've just read your Spectator column and the reason your teachers didn't go on strike is probably because there was no point! If you were intending to cover with volunteers then the effect of the strike would be nil.

Dailydreaming, free schools are no more selective than ordinary comprehensives and nor could they be since they're bound by the School Admissions Code.

I don't think expecting all the children to go on to university, no matter where they sit on the ability spectrum, is unrealistic. All the children at the Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney went on to university this year and Mossbourne is a non-selective school in England's most socially deprived borough.

Lumi
"looked after" is a bit of a mean one to spring on the poor boy as the numbers are so small - in Hampshire there were only 11 looked after children who started state secondary school ....
SEN and FSM is a different matter

Dailydreaming, You're right that there's nothing to stop free schools being set up that cater for children with particular special needs. Indeed, I'm currently in touch with a woman who wants to set up a free school for dyslexic children.

wonkeylegs, See my answer to DogStinkhorn above.

wwbd, We estimate that approximately 25% of the children at our school have Special Educational Needs of one kind or another.

still waiting for the % of children with SEN
-statements
-school action plus
-school action

coppertop, You can view our Code of Conduct here:

www.westlondonfreeschool.co.uk/userfiles/conduct.pdf

"of one kind and another" yeah right
How many Statements and School Action Plus

Hollygully, It's not fanciful to suggest free schools will drive up standards in neighbouring schools. Two researchers at the LSE looked at the impact the academies set up under the last government had had on neighbouring schools and discovered that it had been almost universally positive. In education, as in most walks of life, competition drives up standards. Similar studies have been carried out in various American states where charter schools have been set up and the findings were identical. You can find the study I'm referring to here:

cee.lse.ac.uk/ceedps//ceedp123.pdf

BobblyGussets, That scene in the documentary in which my wife and I create a long, thin catchment area to enable us to get our children into the school was intended to illustrate the difficulty of setting up a school at that particular site which was three miles from our home. It was never our intention to actually create a catchment area long those lines.

In fact, that site proved impractical for other reasons. Our admissions policy is 10% musical aptitude, 45% straight-line distance and 45% lottery within a five-mile radius. You can see the policy in detail here:

www.westlondonfreeschool.co.uk/userfiles/WLFS%20Admissions%202012%20FINAL%20Vo5.pdf

This all depends on what you consider to be the benchmark of a successful school of course.

Why is looked after children unfair.?They are first on most state schools admission criteria. We have at least 3 looked after children in our primary school. Toby doesn't answer any questions he doesn't want to anyway.

TalkinPearce2, I'm currently the Chair of Governors and yet none of my children are at the school. If my youngest ends up getting in and stays until he's 18 then he won't graduate until 2026 by which time I'll be 63. So even if you're right and my interest in the school will cease as soon as my own children have passed through its gates, it's hardly a "short term vanity project".

The problem you identify is not unique to free schools. Nearly all schools are governed by volunteers and those volunteers eventually move on and have to be replaced. We currently don't have any parent governors at the West London Free School, though we intend to appoint some in due course. That's no different from any other school. You can see a list of our current governors here:

ttp://www.westlondonfreeschool.co.uk/governors.html

So wlfs admission policy doesn't include looked after children or sen at all?

agree with Luminescene - I was thinking exactly the same question

The school's admissions policy states that looked after children and children with SEN are given priority

onceinawhile, at present, 23.5% of the children at our school are on free school meals. That's a higher percentage than at three of the neighbouring maintained schools. As an exercise, why don't you compare it with the number of children on free school meals at your DCs' school. You can find the data on Edubase here:

www.education.gov.uk/edubase/home.xhtml;jsessionid=2C57C1759A123A06BEBCF8B70A4DD020

backdoor privatisation resulting in under-funded state schools and even more social division.

Toby
Free school meals : prove it
www.education.gov.uk/establishments/urn/136750/west-london-free-school/pupilsworkforce

Yes, but what percentage of looked after children and registered sen are at the school?

TalkinPeace2, I take my hat off to Oasis for building a new school so inexpensively. At full capacity ours will educate 840 children ? 120 in each year group from 11-18.

I'm not sure it is any cheaper to enlarge existing schools. You'd think it would be, but it isn't ? at least, not always. For instance, Ealing Council submitted an application for £300m in BSF funding, £75m of which was earmarked for extending the borough's existing secondary schools by five-and-a-half forms of entry.

Another factor to bear in mind is that enlarging existing schools is extremely unpopular with parents, mainly because it means reducing the amount of play space per child (that's assuming you're adding classrooms, but not enlarging the site's total footprint ? which would, of course, be even more expensive). At my local primary in Acton, for instance, the parents are absolutely up in arms about the fact that it's about to be enlarged.

Luminescence, I think you're imagining that link. Capital funding for state schools would have been reduced whichever party had won the last general election.

Toby
please name the academy that you say cost £34m so we can check your assertion