One military style school and one where parents can park their children 51 weeks per year ...

[dikkertjedap]

What a good start to the free schools concept .... and then we are surprised that we live in a society close to social and moral breakdown. Is this really the way to treat our children?

Link, please.

Any idea of the fees?

Maybe we can just combine the 2 ideas and raise a generation of perfect children?

I think 51 weeks a year is a great idea. Gives better continuity and stability to a child imo than school plus childminder plus holiday club etc etc

Ooh like the sound of that where are these schools, hope the fees are not too high

The 51 weeks school is discussed in yesterday's Times. The military school here

The 51 week school is also very briefly mentioned here but there is a long article in yesterday's Times. Boy, what a sad society we live in ...

My son could do with a couple of weeks at military school
Where do I sign up?

I reckon DS would love military school.

On a more serious note, this is a quote from the founder:

If the plans went ahead, Mr Burkard said the school would also use military-style discipline, which he said many people were opposed to because they did not understand it.

Most people in this country think of military discipline from the standpoint of what it was like under national service," he said.

If you have to use your sticks all the time, you are doing something wrong.

The job of the officer and the NCO is to enlist the enthusiasm to perform difficult tasks under demanding circumstances.

We think these skills in being able to motivate those who come from difficult areas is the one quality which is going to keep kids out of gang culture.

Sounds like a good idea to me.

I don't see the problem with a military-style approach at all. There are already quite a lot of parents that actively seek out schools with a strong disciplinary ethos & a high proportion of male teachers because they feel their children, especially sons, would benefit.

And as for schools open 51 weeks... quite a few schools offer wraparound childcare, holiday clubs etc. You may be one of the rich/lucky sorts that can be home 24/7 but working parents on 20 days holiday a year need affordable childcare outside of term time. Frankly, I think it's a pretty cheap shot to tut about it being 'sad' or blame childcare for 'social & moral breakdown'.