Article on Toby Young's west london free school - I don't understand admissions

[PollyParanoia]

Ok article is here from yesterday's standard.
I do find all this stuff about "we want a school with high standards" a bit strange - is there anyone head or parent who actively wants a crap one?
But my main question is one of admissions. It says that the site is 3 miles from Toby Young's house. Presumably that would mean that his four children wouldn't get in if it's done on catchment. Is this the case? If true, it seems strangely admirable and altruistic of him to be doing all this hard work. I suppose I should be applauding his philanthropy rather than assuming he wants an education he can't afford to pay for...

It's interesting that where I live, if parents are given the less desirable comprehensive choice for their children, they are up in arms about them travelling there across town.

Yet, if their children pass the test to the super selective grammar school, no-one bats an eyelid about them having to travel even further.

So the travelling objection is a bit of a red herring really or everyone would be turning down places at the grammar school because of the distance....not v likely!!

The travelling objection is not a red herring when it comes from those of us who are very happy with our local, on-the-doorstep state schools and actively want our children to go to them!

Does anyone know of a campaign against the West London Free School? We are potentially in the catchment area and I am trying to find out if anyone is organising opposition. I would like to try to persuade the parents wishing to set up this school to put their amazing efforts to better use in supporting the existing state schools rather than undermining them by trying to take away more of the academically-inclined and middle class children.

Mmm. You might want to consider if the Ealing schools will appreciate your efforts. For example, Acton High School, rated by good by Ofsted, appears to be a well managed school with a clear idea of what it's objectives are. Its head might be quite relieved not to have the 'support' of Toby Young and his team!

Just a thought.

Maybe too sensible an idea Garon ?

SorryI haven't readthe whole thread.
Just wanted to comment on the following:
"why take money away from already stretched schools who are doing their best to jump through all the hoops the government has set up, and give it to people with no experience, no track record, and without the same restrictions on their operations?"

AFAIC schools get money for each student they allow through the door.

Hence they fight for each student. Bums on the seats...

I am sure they will employ a Head who is sympathetic with their views and such teachers. Lack of cooperation from parents is one of problems teachers face. having them on their side would make teaching this much easier. Tey will have to have OFSTAD visits. One of Academies I know pays extra fee to them to be inspected every year to see the progress they are making.
I strongly believe those parents wantthe best for their kids and as such won't be messing around for the sake of popularity - they all have good careers to show off

I agree that there's going to be the set up cost involved, but I know numerous parents in West London who would love to send their kids to this school once is up and running.

Isn't ia all about having choice after all?

one Academy I know has none of the handpicked kids..
in fact is the last on the list of choices parents would have for their kids in that borough
what they do very well is to provide care for vunerable kids
where they fail I think is not to address the uniform problems, follow up kids who are misbehaving in busses and terrorise locals
some teachewrs are treated fevourably, 'cos they volunteer more of their free time to school and their poor teaching is looked over...

Anyone want to start this discussion again now we've seen the programme?

His motivations seem to be self promotion and the knowledge that he can't afford to go private. I did think that he could probably pay for the first year of his childrens' private education from the fee for the film. If he did a film a year for 7 years then he could pay for the lot. Then he could start a 'free university' make a film about that and so on ..

sorry but LOL @ 'Toby cares deeply about children from all backgrounds having access to Latin. '
bless him. now worry about something more important Toby

entrance requirements: mate of Toby

or am i being cynical??

Free schools have to comply with the Admissions Code, so "mate of Toby" as an entrance requirement would get them into all kinds of trouble.

prh, from what I have seen of academies, the selection happens the other end: not a skewed selection system, but an unusually high number of exclusions. Our local academy excluded as many pupils last year as the rest of the city's schools put together. They still got piss poor GCSE results though.

And no, it is not the most deprived area of town.

I agree that is a concern, cory. I'm not sure what can be done about it. If you make it difficult for schools to exclude pupils they will complain that you are undermining discipline and you risk taking teachers away from teaching so they can fill in the paperwork and attend the appeals. If you make it easy you may find schools excluding pupils as a back door route to selection. I've no idea what the answer is.

Just one small problem for West London Free School - sticking with a very academic curriculum will rule out an Oustanding OFSTED. A local 'Academy' with traditonal values (former private school) was criticised for not offering broad enough subject choice and vocational options at 14+. How will they cope?

Academies could have done spectacularly well in the first few years because of the measure used to assess the progress. Originally that was the level of pupils gaining 5A to C, now it is those gaining 5A to C including english and maths.

When you factor in that for example an ICT course could be worth the equivalent of 4 A* to C then you can see how it was possible for the results to appear to make real progress under the original measure but not now.

As far as admissions to this new free school are concerned until there is an agreement on the exact admission criteria it is only speculation on who might or might not get in.
However anybody who is actively involved in setting up the school is clearly going to be trying to set admission criteria which will favour their children, whilst still meeting the admission regulations around what criteria are legal.

I think the West London Free School sounds fantastic. It is exactly the kind of state school I want my children to go to, and right now, don't have on offer at all. I have seen the bullying and thuggishness at Acton High and would never want my children near the place. The idea that if the intake is comprehensive then we have to give up on having high expectations of the children makes me despair, frankly.

The WEst London Free School will not be academically selective. Every school has selection criteria, whether that be radius from the school, a defined catchment area or even a lottery. The West London Free School does nto have a confirmed site so it is hard for them to set a georgraphiuc criteria at this stage. It may have to be location in relation to another fixed point or just a lottery drawn from local boroughs.

The Departmetn for Edcation is likely to allow those parents who set up free schools to have priority admission. It makes sense. They put in an awful lot of work. Imagine if you worked every night for a year to establish a school but because a building near you could not be found. To be fair tToby Young and the other parents ahve kids due to enter Year 7 soon. This school is unlikely to be oversubscribed in Sept 2011 as they have yet to spread the word far enough and the uncertainty about the site will be off putting to many parents.

And it is not taking money away from other overstretched schools. It is catering for an area where there are not enough school spaces. A new school was needed. A group of very motivated parents are making sure its a good school that actually allows parents a real choice due to its unqiue ethos.

Is that true that there weren't enough places in that area? In that programme it said that Ealing hadn't given it the go-ahead because they couldn't prove there was a need for another school. I think, can't really remember so I'm happy to be corrected.
Can the DofE really give priority to those parents who set up the free schools? That doesn't seem to be a very fair and transparent admissions code. How do you define whether a parent has set it up? How many committee meetings do they have to have turned up to? Is it main committee members or sub-committee members? Who verifies this? How do they make sure this isn't open to corruption?
To me this is the whole problem with parent-led schools. Parents are pretty selfish (myself included) and so their interest is only going to last as long as their children are the right age (and only then if their children get in)

There is a need for a new high school in Ealing but the council had hoped to build one themselves at the old GSK Leisure Club site in Greenford.

This approval for the council's school has now, however, been reversed by Gove.

I think at this precise moment, there is no need for a new secondary school in ealing but there is a real problem with primary places which will eventually lead to a real problem with secondary school places. I know that at least 4 local primary schools have had to add classes or place temporary cabins into playgrounds to accommodate kids. So building/creating a new secondary school now makes sense.

From what I have heard, the admissions policy for the free school will be largely allocated by lottery so there is a good chance that Toby's children will not get in as well as a far few local kids!

Actually, Trying2bgd is right, the shortage is anticipated for 2015. It is also worst in the North of the borough, not Acton which is in the East (and is where TY lives).

From the council website:

"There's been a sharp rise in the number of children born in the area in recent years and education officers are predicting the borough will need around 1,600 more secondary school places by 2015."

"The shortage of places will be mainly in the north of the borough, in Greenford, Northolt and Perivale"

The council's proposed school which they lost funding for was to be in Greenford - where actually needed.

I think that it is v unlikely that the site will be in Ealing anyway. From what I have heard the Standard have got that wrong.

"Inspiration: The Renaissance Arts Academy in Los Angeles and Swedish free schools."

I have never met a Swede who does not think that the Free Schools are an educational disaster. Since their introduction, Sweden has dropped headlong down the international educational league tables, where they used to be number one. Not everything is good because it comes from Scandinavia.

I'm a little cautious about this, Cory. The data is horrendously complex to interpret. However, as far as I can see Sweden were not number one in the international educational league tables. In 2000, when the OECD PISA study first appeared, it was 9th in reading, 15th in maths and 10th in science. In 2006 it was 10th in reading, 21st in maths and 22nd in science, so it remained pretty static in reading but fell back in the other two. However, most of the fall has been due to the fact that more countries are now taking part in the tests that produce these league tables, with many of the new arrivals going straight into the top 10. Over the period these tables have been in existence the UK has dropped further than Sweden. In 2000 we were 7th, 8th and 4th but by 2006 we had fallen to 17th, 24th and 14th. So from being ahead of Sweden in all three subject areas, we are now behind Sweden in two.

A recent study by the Unversity of Gothenburg found that, in as much as there has been a decline, the free schools are not the reason. Many other things are more important including housing segregation and the introduction of the current national curriculum which led to increased use of independent learning and reduced the use of teacher-led instruction. This national curriculum is seen as chiefly to blame for the fall in maths and science.

The evidence available suggests that the free schools in Sweden perform better than municipal schools and that the presence of free schools in an area results in improved performance by the local municipal schools.

There are, of course, plenty of reasons to believe that the free schools in this country may not succeed. But the suggestion they have failed in Sweden is at best unproven.