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.

The only reason the judiciary etc are stuffed full of public school (largely male) alumni is because a couple of generations ago, that was the norm.

The world is a very different place now and we are not well served by hanging on to a legacy of arbitrary discrimination and inequality. We need to dig harder for talent and nurture it better.

Extended schools are a good way of promoting social inclusion and raising standards.

We're doing worse because when we had selective education at 11 with the 11+ for all poor clever children got on in life. When we dumbed everyone down and coralled them into comps those paying school fees found the competition was not so good and did better or so says the Sutton Trust.

If the talented are not educate properly in the way the private schools educate pupils then obviously they will do worse at work than they ever did. I accept that 50% of pupils at good universities are from the state sector (and 7% of children only are at private schools) but a lot of that 50% are from state grammars and the numbers in some cases are not really much better than they were. Having free schools and more choice for parents is a great idea although it sounds like most of them are fundamentalist religious outfits but even there we want on the whole parents to have a choice and not to interfere with that choice in my view.

xenia
all poor clever children got on in life
you are talking out of your fragrant ARSE
at my kids schools there are bright kids with UTTERLY dysfunctional parents (prison, drugs etc) - the school has the attitude and resources to deal with them
a grammar would never have let them in as they do not have good attendance records at primary through no fault of their own

BOY OH BOY do you need to spend a year out in the sticks discovering how the world outside the 1% 50% tax band in NW1 lives

Agree with Xenia. We need a diversity of choice, so that the public can choose what they want rather than being dictated to by an Islintongista elite, who very often escape their own straightjacket and educate their children privately.

'at my kids schools there are bright kids with UTTERLY dysfunctional parents (prison, drugs etc) - the school has the attitude and resources to deal with them
a grammar would never have let them in'

well it sounds like they are in the right school because it has teh "attitude and resources to deal with them". A grammar school may not have the same resources. Diversity provides different models for different children. SChildren are diverse and one model doesn't fit all, which is possibly why Diane Abbott sent her son private.

And agree with Xenia that we are very fortunate to live in a country that still allows home schooling as well. Parents' wishes should be respected. Am shocked that Xenia says that home schooling is not allowed in Germany.

Claig
so you have tarred the children with the parents brush
even though they are bright
and any grammar that does not have such resources should be failed by ofsted as such things crop up without warning during secondary

I have nothing to say about a london MP.
most of the country is not London

Parents care more about education than the experts, planners and social engineers, so anything that gives more choice to parents and less influence to dictats from on high is to be welcomed.

Every school in the country can't provide teh same resources for all the different needs of children. I think parents should be able to choose if tehy prefer a specialist school for music or languages etc. or not. One size does not fit all, and in a democracy parents should be able to make the choice that suits them best. The socialists and social engineers should not be able to force one model on every child in teh country.

the money suddenly available for 'free' (haha) schools should have been just given to improving existing schools as it was once budgeted to

Agree with smallwhitecat. If parents want to choose Latin over media studies, what is the problem? I think the school that Diane Abbott's son went to do Latin, so why can't other parents be allowed to have access to the same type of education?

Exactly, smallwhitecat. Because parents care much more than the experts and planners. Empower ordinary people, let them be stakeholders and reduce teh power of the Islingtonista elites who decide what is allowed and what isn't, and who often sidestep what they tell everyone else to do by going private themselves.

'Traditional' subjects are available in the state sector if parents want them. In fact every state school I have ever had dealings with happens to have taught Latin, for example.

That is good. But why then attack Toby's school for offering the same?

simple
in my kids comp, latin is offered to those who will make use of it
those who will end up putting tiles on the roof need not know the difference between Pb and Mg

If I understand it correctly, Toby's school will offer Latin to everyone. Nobody knows which child will end up putting tiles on roofs, and even if they do do that, at least they will have had access to our cultural heritage rather than media studies etc.

Many people haven't - they have only made objections about siphoning money off for this in the present financial climate, given that best practice can already be found in the maintained sector, and could be rolled out wider for a lot less money than this.

UH
I do accounts for these people
I have known them and worked with them for 20 years
how many builders do YOU know (as people rather than the man who does)

out of interest could you provide for the other readers the translation of Pb and Mg

Exactly, smallwhitecat.
The progressives want to deny to working class children, what was offered to Diane Abbott's child. I hope the Tories put an end to this type of arrogance.

Our local state school (not Toby's) allows children to do Latin if they have 5s in English and Maths at the end of KS2. Not sure how that correlates to rooves or otherwise.

Do you mean me?

Lead and Magnesium.

FWIW I would teach all kids triple science in preference to Latin.