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...

Thought this was interesting about the Hindu Free School.www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jan/07/first-hindu-free-school-unveils-plans

The directors of i-Foundation seem to have a staggering interest in education:
www.i-foundation.org/who-we-are

More educational credentials than most 'sponsors of free schools' are likely to have!!

JUST what this country needs, right now, is the factionalisation of the population by yet more possible religious indoctrination of the young, eh?

I can imagine the local non-Hindu parents will be queueing to get their DCs in there!

But:

'Free schools must admit 50% of pupils "without reference to faith". By contrast, existing voluntary-aided faith schools, which get state funding, can give priority to children of their own religion but cannot refuse others if they are under-subscribed.'

Just how will they manage that?!

Sorry, I don't quite understand what you mean- I gather the free school will be 50% (is it?) Hindu and the rest admitted 'without reference to their faith'. My point is how many non-Hindu kids would attend a Hindu school anyway?

Surely VA school can fill themselves completely with the DCs of that religion and only offer up spare spaces if no more DCs of that religion apply.

Either way I cannot see how niche-interest groups running schools can possibly be a good thing!

How much does it cost to set one of these up? Michael talks about the current financial crisis and the national debt burden but what he won't talk about is the cost of these so-called free schools! He?s lavishing so much money on free schools that his department is embarrassed to reveal the total. The Department for Education will only say that the cost of these schools is commercially sensitive. With many of them in listed buildings that will cost millions of pounds to renovate and maintain, it's no wonder that the DfE is coy about the outlay. Instead of spending vast amounts of taxpayers? money on 32 schools, Mike should be using it for the benefit of all our children.

whatever |Toby Youngs says. He is a Tory activist; and to an extent they will make it up as they go along. Toby or NOT Toby...that is ze question

Talking of free schools a relative has shown me the leaflet he got for the public consultation for the free school in canary wharf which is opening in September. Apparently they are very coy about their admissions code and at least half of their intake will be the ex- pupils of a private primary. The head of canary college was the head of this private primary school nearby and it seems her and some of the parents set up this free school which will have 20 pupils per class . My relative said when he was at the consultation the parents who had set up this school were probably bankers working in canary wharf. So a free school which is going to benefit a bunch of well paid bankers who don't want to fork out for private school fees and who want to keep the riff raff out. Well done Michael Gove that's exactly how I wanted you to spend my taxes.

Toby Young is a right wing journalist. I'm not sure I would call him a Tory activist. Another free school is being set up by Tony Blair's head of strategy and a member of David Milliband's campaign team. Are they Tory activists too?

On the subject of this thread, free schools are required to comply with the same Admissions Code as everybody else and must take part in the co-ordinated admissions scheme operated by the LA. The draft Admissions Code the government has produced for consultation suggests that free schools may be able to give priority to the children of those involved in setting up the school but that won't come into operation until 2013.

So the same as academies, their own admissions authority?

Yes, just like academies, faith schools and foundation schools. They are their own admissions authority which basically means they set their own admission criteria but the Admissions Code restricts the criteria they can set. For example:

• They must accept SEN children with a statement naming the school even if they are already full
• They must give highest priority to looked after children
• They cannot select on academic ability (although they can use fair banding)
• They cannot give priority to parents naming the school as first preference
• They cannot give priority to relatives of ex pupils
• They cannot give priority to parents who support the school financially
• They cannot give priority to children of well off parents
• They cannot give priority to children of highly qualified parents
• They cannot give priority to children of governors

and so on.

That does not, of course, guarantee that they won't try. I can name a faith school that gives priority to children of ex pupils, for example. And it is not unknown for an LA to set admission criteria that breach the Admissions Code, although it is fairly rare. There are mechanisms in place to force schools to fall into line but they generally only kick in when a parent appeals or complains through appropriate channels.

mumzy - Canary Wharf College are not in the slightest bit coy about their admissions criteria. They are available for all to see on their website and were included in their consultation questionnaire. It took me all of 30 seconds to find them. They are:

• Looked after children
• Children whose parents are Founders
• Applicants who meet the criteria for Faith places (i.e. whose parents attend church - no more than 50% of the places will go under this heading)
• Children with exceptional medical or social needs
• Siblings of children already attending at the time of admission

Distance is used as the tie breaker.

The Founders are a well defined, small group of people - as far as I can see they are the 6 Trustees plus a handful of advisers.

The fee paying school (Faraday School) where the head worked previously continues to operate. It is not closing down. I therefore do not see any way that 50% of the places at Canary Wharf College will go to children from Faraday School. There is certainly nothing in the new school's admission criteria that would lead to that outcome.

I suspect this rumour comes from someone misunderstanding their published admission criteria, believing (wrongly) that all the parents of children at Faraday School count as Founders and (also wrongly) that 50% of places are reserved for children of Founders.

Isn't the Faraday school a Private Christian faith school so based on that criteria a lot of Faraday pupils who are probably of Christians will get have a good chance of getting in plus all the school places had gone before the public consultation was ever held Re: the coyness when BIL went to the public consultation at the local community hall were the school will be based he had to ask one of the founders twice and really press him before he was told about the admissions code. Bridge you seem to know a lot about Canary Wharf College any chance you have a vested interest in it?

BIL who is works in education local to Canary Wharf College said that a Pupil referral unit which aims to educate some of the most troubled and vulnerable children in the borough are having to vacate the premises to make way for Canary Wharf College. where this pupil referral unit will go no one seems to know or care much about. It appears all the founders and Michael Gove's priorities are the free schools are seen as a success even at the expense of the most vulnerable children

I have no interest in Canary Wharf College at all. I live hundreds of miles away. My knowledge comes entirely from a brief web search. I am interested in education generally and am an expert in school admissions.

You say I "seem to know a lot about Canary Wharf College". As I said in my previous post, it took me around 30 seconds to find the admission criteria on their website. In total I spent around 5 minutes browsing the web to find the information that went into my last post.

The Faraday School is a not for profit school run by the New Model School Company (which I also knew nothing about until yesterday). It has a Christian ethos but that does not mean that parents are all practising Christians, so many of the children at Faraday School would not qualify for the faith category at Canary Wharf College. Within the faith category Canary Wharf College uses distance as the tie breaker. So yes, if there are parents whose children currently attend Faraday School who are practising Christians, want to move their children back into the state system and live close to Canary Wharf College they will have a reasonable chance of getting a place. I suspect the number of such parents is minimal.

I clearly cannot comment on the public consultation but, as I say, the admission criteria were included in the consultation questionnaire. That doesn't seem very coy to me.

Once it is open the school will be part of the Tower Hamlets co-ordinated admissions scheme. Anyone wanting a place at this school must apply to Tower Hamlets (or their local LA if they live outside Tower Hamlets). They have absolutely no way of "keeping the riff raff out" as you put it.

It is true that the premises they will use were formerly occupied by a PRU. I have not been able to find any information on the PRU and what is happening to it. The implication of some minutes from a meeting of Primary School head teachers I have found is that the PRU was vacating the premises anyway but I have no way of knowing whether or not that is true.

As I understand it the 3rd admissions criteria is practising christian faith which has priority over distance. I presume the majority of children attending Faraday school will come from families who are practising christians as why else would you specifically choose a private school with a Christian ethos. So it doesn't take a genius to work if a child from Faraday school applied for a place at Canary Wharf College they would have a pretty good chance of getting in. The only other children who would have a better chance, all things being equal would be children of practising Christians who live nearer the college. As for the PRU BIL knows some of the staff who work there and none of them were happy about being turfed out especially when it's still uncertain what will happen about their accommodation

Yes, the third criteria is practising Christian faith. A maximum of 50% of the places will be allocated under this criteria. If there are more applicants than places then distance is used as a tie breaker. I therefore stand by my statement that parents from Faraday School who are practising Christians and want to move their children back into the state system stand a reasonable chance of getting a place provided they live close to the school. However, I do not see any reason why large numbers of parents would wish to make such a move nor can I find any evidence of such a move taking place - quite the contrary. But the fundamental point is that there is no special priority for children from Faraday School. They are treated equally with all other children from Christian families.

Your initial statement was that 50% of the places are taken by children from Faraday School. On the information I have seen I am certain that this is not true.

Regarding the PRU, I have now found the website of the organisation that runs it which seems to tell a rather different story but I am too far away from this to know the truth.

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/10/sweden-free-schools-experiment

Doubts grow over the success of Sweden's free schools experiment

Apologies, I haven't read all the posts (though I shall definitely be back to do so). I work in an area where we will be competing for students from Toby Young's school......except I don't really. None of my kids' parents will have heard of it, understand that they are eligible or want to be in an environment with mainly white kids.

We are therefore discussing it loads and know teachers who work there. Definitely watching it with interest and have had detailed staffroom (gossips) updates on how things are going so far.

As far as the admissions policy goes, yeah, at the moment there is no guarantee of admission for their own children. A particular proportion of children living within three miles are picked randomly and another proportion within five miles and so on. HOWEVER, Michael Gove is keen and has always said publicly, to change admissions so that the free schools can pick their own children.

We are also confident that the majority of children who've gone are from middle class families (and thus are probably not the fully inclusive spread you would expect in a comprehensive) just quite simply because other families are unlikely to have been fully aware of what the school is!

MRZ- a key element of the swedish programme (and one to watch here) is the use of computers as a substitute for teachers. This is already in speedy production here and I understand millions and millions is being invested in it by some of the big publishing companies, particularly Pearson.

tortu, they're interesting and depressing points that you make.

I've got friends who live near Toby Young's free school with a dd in year 4. People seem to have either very detailed knowledge about it, admissions criteria etc or know absolutely nothing about it, depending on their social circumstances.

Isn't it very near another school whose admission demographic it's adversely affecting?

Toby told the press he had "17 per cent on free school meals." is that high or low for the area?

Nationally 16% of children receive free school meals. In London this rises to 26%. Hammersmith and Fulham has 43% of children eligible for free school meals. Only Tower Hamlets has a higher figure. So the figure is higher than the national average but well below that for the area.

I saw an interview with Young in which he acknowledged this. He went on to express the hope that the school's pupils would reflect the social and ethnic mix of the neighbourhood within 2 years. Whether or not this will happen remains to be seen.

If he really wanted that, he maybe wouldn't be doing things like calling the terms 'michaelmas' and the like - this Oxbridge wannabe language creates an automatic barrier to many.

Arguably, also places being allocated on musical ability because, however much you value music and agree with all pupils having access to being taught at least one instrument, it will be the higher income families who have been able to afford the necessary lessons and instruments to receive such a place (give or take the odd musical genius from lowly roots).

I think Toby Young's school sounds OK, and am a bit surprised to hear some people say they wouldn't want their kids to go there because the kids are mainly white. They shouldn't move up here to Scotland then where nearly all schools are mainly white because the population is. That's like me moving to India or Africa and not wanting my kids to go to school with mainly non whites.
Having a mixed ability mixed social class intake will only work if he can exclude disruptive kids more easily than other state schools can.
That is one of the main reasons some parents send their kids to private schools, not because they think the teaching is any better but because the teachers can get on with teaching and not spend half their time trying to keep order.
I know that keeping disruptive kids in mainstream schools is better for those kids, but it isn't better for the teachers or the nondisruptive kids.
I don't blame Toby Young for trying to create a private type school that is free though.

Toby will make the running on Free School TV features in the next 12 months. All the media are interested.

He has already had a feature film on his young life

2rebecca, the concerns about the "kids are mainly white" demographic of Toby Young's free school is because this doesn't reflect the ethnic mix of the area. If it was situated in Scotland, this wouldn't be identified as a concern because of exactly the reasons you've given ie nearly all schools are mainly white because the population is. H&F is an extremely diverse area with very significant pockets of poverty and deprivation.

Many are concerned that this school is creating divisions within the community, derived from access to information/knowing the system, cultural familiarity with/access to eg music lessons. That these divisions are appearing along ethnic/socio-economic lines is a concern unless you're Toby Young and this is exactly what you had in mind.