Failing Free School closed by DfE

[vindscreenviper]

Durham Free School has been told it will close as soon as all the pupils have found places at other schools. Its Ofsted report was only published this morning and although it's really bad I've never heard of a school being closed down on the same day. There must be other stuff happening in the backround surely, don't the DfE usually hand failing schools to one of their mates an academy chain to sort out?

Who knows about appointments Vindscreenviper?certainly not me and I would not want to speculate. My husband insisted that Science and Faith were mutually exclusive- he did so for around 10 minutes- to no avail. It goes down to governance- again. The teacher should have been made aware that this kind of teaching was inappropriate- the worksheet was a reiteration of the lesson. It would be inappropriate even in RS as it was presented as fact. As a commentor on Schoolsweek helpfully pointed out a lot of that worksheet was simply bad Science (even if you ignore the beginning).
To be fair they did appoint an additional Science teacher after this although my child was still taught by the teacher in question.
My child now likes school and is even starting to feel confident about Maths again- something that had taken 3 years of work on our part to build up- she had lost that at DFS.

I think it's a virtual certainty that the DfE has replied to the pre-action letter, and I also suspect that, if asked, they would be perfectly happy for that response to be published as otherwise what is in the public domain is a series of assertions by the school's lawyers that have not been answered. I can quite see why the school wouldn't want to publish that response given that the strong likelihood is that it refutes what their lawyers say, but it would be more honest to do so.

I disagree.

The SoS may have decided to ignore the DFS letter and simply issue the closure notice, which would be one way of responding. Even if she did respond to the letter it is highly unlikely the DfE would allow that response to be published whilst legal action is pending. Indeed, it is very likely that they haven't even been asked if it can be published.

Of course the SoS response, if it exists, will dispute the DFS version of events. However, it remains my view that DFS has a strong argument that, following her statements in January, the SoS should have removed herself from the decision making process. The courts may, of course, disagree and decide that her actions were acceptable.

It would be very risky for any public authority to ignore a pre-action letter. If the school starts judicial review proceedings it would go against the DfE if it had failed to take the opportunity to resolve matters without going to court, and they would at the very least be penalised on costs. Furthermore, if the DfE hadn't replied I strongly suspect the school would be broadcasting that fact.

I'm not convinced that the school needs permission to publish any response. They have no duty of confidentiality to the DfE. I can see why the school might not want to do so, but that's a different issue.

I think they have their letter- I am sure I read that DFS lawyers were perusing it. It was in one of the many Northern Echo articles.

I'm not convinced that the school needs permission to publish any response

You always need permission of the copyright holder before publishing anything. The school clearly does not hold the copyright in any response from the DfE. If they publish without permission they could face legal action for breach of copyright.

More importantly, any response almost certainly stated that it was in confidence. The school does not want to incur the judge's wrath by publishing such a response. That would go against them in that they would be seen as undermining any possibility of settling out of court. If the letter also stated that it was without prejudice publishing it could be seen as an attempt to undermine the judicial process which could get the school into very hot water.

If the school were going to worry about undermining the possibility of settlement, it shouldn't have its own pre-action letter on the website. Accusing the Minister of bias in such a public manner isn't normally considered the best way to settle a case.

Any response would only be without prejudice or in confidence if the DfE were looking at conceding that they are in the wrong or looking at negotiating some sort of deal - which is of course possible, but if there were fruitful negotiations in progress you would expect the school to be rather more moderate in what it publishes.

If the DfE is essentially telling the school to get lost and that it is in the right, the normal response would be a fairly robust letter which will have been written with half an eye to the fact that, if the school starts court action, that letter will be included in the documents filed with the court and it can then be quoted in any published decision. The DfE might well take the view that, given that the school is publishing only one side of the story, it would like the other side of the story to be publicised and would be very happy for its response to be published. If the school had asked them for permission to do so and had been refused, there is nothing to stop them publicising the fact of the refusal.

Which rather suggests that the school hasn't asked.

Any response would only be without prejudice or in confidence if the DfE were looking at conceding that they are in the wrong or looking at negotiating some sort of deal

I agree that without prejudice is normally only used when a party is making a concession that it may wish to withdraw if agreement is not reached. However, in confidence is used far more widely.

Which rather suggests that the school hasn't asked

It is quite likely that they haven't asked. If they did ask, contrary to your view, permission would almost certainly be denied. And I really don't understand your point. The response will have stated which issues were accepted (almost certainly none of them), which were being conceded in part (probably none of them) and which would be contested (almost certainly all of them). So you find it somehow suspicious that the school isn't publishing a letter the contents of which are entirely predictable.

All moot. As of last night the Durham Free School has abandoned their legal fight to save the school. It will close on the 27th March.
I hope that the children will be happy in their new schools- my child certainly is.