First free school to be closed (and it's not Al-Madinah)

[lalalonglegs]

Apparently there is a free school that has been quietly doing even worse than the notorious Al-Madinah in Derby. The Discovery New School in Crawley seems to have had the same systemic problems and begs the question how many more schools will the government allow to be opened by the enthusiastic but incompetent? Report here

merrymouse - responding to you question up-thread about qualified teachers.

All of the teachers are either qualified Montessori teachers, qualified normal/QTS teachers or both. The ideal, when the school was setup was to follow Montessori practices and a Montessori curriculum. There was some reason (and it escapes me exactly what it was) why the school couldn't be Montessori accredited.

I keep hearing about 'unqualified teachers' and that really gives me the rage. While this school has the right to hire 'unqualified' teachers - that isn't what it's ever done.

It seems that due to the demands of Ofsted (meeting national curriculum standards on a national curriculum timescale) that the school has had to step back from that goal, so we currently say a 'Montessori ethos' (which is a bit of a cop-out really - although it is true).

The younger classes are still taught by a Montessori-qualified teachers and the methods are probably at their best in that setting.

Being offered a tonne of money isn't an option - as far as I know there are no extra funds available to the school to help us improve (sadly unlike an LEA-managed school where the LEA accrues reserves for this eventuality).

A 'qualified Montessori teacher' counts as an unqualified teacher, if they don't have QTS (Qualified Teacher Status).

"Given that free schools *aren't really supported by libdems".

May Ofsted, just in case anyone still thinks this school has been treated unfairly

Thanks madeupstuff. Again id love to know how the Steiner free school is coping with adhering to ofsted rules. To me that seems much more of a mismatch.

Being offered a tonne of money isn't an option

In that case, it sounds like the only option is to close the school. If you have a school with no good teachers and no money for a school-wide training programme, then any efforts to improve are just pissing in the wind.

I read the earlier Ofsted report, having heard that the school was to close. It struck me as a clash of ideals, really. The point being that a Montessori school teaches in a Montessori fashion, which is at polar opposites to the way in which Ofsted carries out its assessments.

The Ofsted report is criticising the lack of structure, lack of marking, lack of dated work, but from what I understand of the Montessori approach, structure, testing etc is the antithesis of a Montessori education.

Consequently, if Ofsted has to use the same parameters to judge a Montessori Free School/local state primary/C of E secondary, it seems a bit ridiculous.

Surely Free Schools should be exempt from the same inspection process as state schools? Either some other kind of inspection should be undertaken, perhaps focusing only on core elements such as Child Protection and child safety, with no examination of the educational attainment or teaching methods? Shouldn't Free Schools be akin to Home Education and subject to the same approach?

And they've already had a tonne of money!

Feel sorry for the kids in these schools. They should never have opened in the first place, but now there will be even more disruption to their educations.

While they are funded by the state, they have an obligation to show their worth on state measures. A school that is in danger of sending kids to secondary school unable to read and write is not worth state funding. The state is paying for the children of the state to receive an adequate education, not simply paying for whatever parents want.

If parents want a school that the state system has clearly found completely lacking, then they are perfectly allowed to stump up their own cash for one.

There's something in that ofsted report that makes me wonder whether the issue isn't so much the fact that they're montessori but the fact that they aren't even doing montessori well.

MM was well ahead of the nc when it comes to a phonics based approach to reading. Children would be expected to master this beteen 3 and 6. I wouldn't expect their year 1 and 2 children to be having as much trouble with reading as the report suggests thry are.

A teacher had the children sitting in coats at their desks 20 minutes before the end of the day while ofsted were in!

Speechless!

Plus the fact that the head admitted that she didn't know how to assess teachers' performance.

Qualified Montessori teacher,that's an oxymoron
Only qualified teacher is one with QTS status

sorry, really don'#t have much time, will try and come back later but a couple of points I did want to raise:

1. i think a LOT of the issue is that Montessori teaching will not tick ofsteds boxes ie, this... "The Ofsted report is criticising the lack of structure, lack of marking, lack of dated work, but from what I understand of the Montessori approach, structure, testing etc is the antithesis of a Montessori education.

Consequently, if Ofsted has to use the same parameters to judge a Montessori Free School/local state primary/C of E secondary, it seems a bit ridiculous. "
(freckledleopard)

2. there WERE issues with the school under previous head. the school was NOT being managed properly, teachers weren't being assessed properly.
   no-one is denying this... what we are asking for is TIME for the NEW HEAD to bring changes in (some of which have already happened, inc introduction of NC teaching for literacy and numeracy throughout the school)
   we aren't denying there were problems, we are asking for a reasonable amount of time to fix them... not 12 days, which is what we were given

3. ALL bar one of our teachers holds QTS. The one who doesn't is a qualified Montessori teacher which, quite frankly, is what you want in a Montessori school.
   The idea that the only good teacher is a QTS teacher is ridiculous. There are plenty of bad teachers out there who have QTS, and there are plenty of great ones who simply haven't done that particular training.
   If we assume that ONLY QTS teachers are good then we're saying that no teacher from any other country with different training can be good? I think not

4. my point about the other local schools being in special measures/inadequate is that MINISTERS have been at pains to say, in the news, that our children deserve better and should get a better education and shouldn't be in a school in special measures. and yet our only option is to move them to a school in special measures. with bigger classes. that makes no sense. if our school is in SM and isn't good enough for our kids then why is another school in SM going to be better for them?

5. we were given 10 days to respond to Lord Nash outlining a plan of action. Now we're being told that the school is SO bad no-one could ever have fixed it and it must close. So why did they suggest we come up with a plan of action if none would ever have been good enough to keep us open?

6. i've covered this already. But why can't we have the same amount of time as other schools to get out of special measures?

claydavis this year 94% of our yr 1 students passed their phonics test. well above the national average.

years R-2 are the only ones who have ONLY been to DNS, the others all would have transferred in from other schools when it opened, so wouldn't have had the same foundation in learning and have also had to get used to a different curriculum.

I think it's also important to mention that we have a high proportion of children with SEN... many of us chose the school because we could see that small class sizes, a very child-led and often visual approach to learning would suit our children.

my eldest is 8 and has autism. He struggles, as many ASD kids do, with handwriting. he has made progress but he still isn't where he "ought" to be compared to his peers.
He makes up 12.5% of his year group. So his failing means that statistically 12.5% of Year 4 are failing to write properly.

do you see how statistics can mis-represent things in a school of this size?

The idea that the only good teacher is a QTS teacher is ridiculous
I don't think anyone said that. However someone did claim that the school didn't use unqualified teachers, which if they don't have QTS is untrue.

if our school is in SM and isn't good enough for our kids then why is another school in SM going to be better for them?

Because presumably the other school isn't considered beyond hope of adequate improvement.

we aren't denying there were problems, we are asking for a reasonable amount of time to fix them... not 12 days, which is what we were given

No progress had been made since May.

structure, testing etc is the antithesis of a Montessori education.

This was not my experience of DS's Montessori pre-school. I have never been in a more structured, organised environment anywhere before or since. Children were taught how to greet the teacher (always shake hands on entry), How to open a door, how to pour water, how to handle a chair etc. etc. etc. This is all part of 'practical life/grace and courtesy'. Every part of the classroom environment was planned to the nth degree so that children could do things for themselves. "Teach me to do it myself" is a fundamental part of montessori, but this is done by demonstrating a set way for a child to do every single task.

There wasn't formal testing e.g. "now children sit down at your desks for your spelling test" but teachers were constantly taking notes on individual children e.g. on which phonics sounds they knew and where they were in maths. There was a set progression for each part of learning.

To be fair, the person who ran this school had been doing so for 20 years - I understand from blogs of montessori teachers that the theory and reality of having a 'normalised ' (montessori speak for ideal classroom) classroom can be different. I'm not surprised that 2 inexperienced people setting up a new montessori primary school found it challenging. Also, in this country, I think there are lots of montessori teachers experienced in the 3-6 years montessori curriculum, but there are very few montessori primary schools.

Some schools do have an unstructured philosophy e.g. summerhill, but that is not montessori.

Anyway, I sympathise with you Bund. It's not as though schools in general are coping with children on the spectrum.

Bundaberg- it's not just the statistics. I would probably agree with you if it were. It's everything else!

Having read through the ofsted report it seems that concerns were raised in September 2012. So this school has not had 12 days to improve but 12 months.

I think this school has demonstrated the fundamental weakness of free schools. Where school management is inadequate then it is highly likely that the governing body will also be weak. When that happens who is there to get things changed? Weaknesses go unchallenged until the next time ofsted inspectors come. By which point it is too late.