Independent prep is now a free school

[MissE1]

My DS's prep is now a free school since last September. What are your views on this change as I am not completely sure about it. He is in Reception year.

Hi all. I am new to mumsnet and am looking forward to your thoughts about free schools. Anyone who has experienced this??

Does this mean that you have kept the class sizes and teachers but done away with the fees?

It will no longer be able to select on the basis of academic ability, parental income or student behaviour.

Therefore it will change.

Besides that it will be the same. Instead of parents paying, the govt will. The school know how much money per head they'll get, and have decided to convert.

They have increased class sizes and the school is due to move to bigger premises and increase the numbers again. The original Principal has resigned recently. As they have opened up the school to children in the local area I have noticed more unruly behaviour. The school is now being run by an organisation that has formed a couple of academies in the area.

This happened locally, the school has gone downhill, most of the teachers and original students have left, including the headmistress.

thicko here , what's a free school?

That is my worry about it going downhill. I must admit most of us parents were excited about not having to pay fees anymore! The nursery which was part of the prep school is now run as a seperate new independent with new name and uniforms. My DS attended since he was 2. Half of his nursery did not get a place at the free school cos of catchment areas etc. They are now part of the new reception class at the new prep. There have been talk that the principal has left to head new prep.

As other posters have pointed out, the admission criteria will change. As a result, it is no longer parents who have money and for whom education is worth paying for who will have their children at this school. Class sizes will increase and there are likely to be more disruptive children. Bad combination in my experience! If you can afford you may want to look for another school.

I am considering moving him but there are no independent schools in this town apart from the newly formed. They are happy to enrol my DS for Yr1 in September. It's being run by the same trust who established the previous school but am also thinking its too new to know how the standards will be. They did a good job with the previous school except they got into financial difficulty because some parents stopped paying fees. As a new prep the will now be stricter on who gets in apparently.!

They are, to all intents and purposes, identical to academies except that they are either new schools or independent schools that have converted, whereas academies are state schools that have converted.

In many areas there aren't enough school places or the schools are in the wrong place, which is why we often hear on MN from parents who haven't been offered a place at any school or have been offered a place miles away. In that situation a free school certainly isn't "stealing money" from anyone. It is obviously more controversial in areas where there are already enough school places, but harder to get the school opened in such areas as those behind the scheme have to show that there is demand for the school. Obviously in such areas a free school could leave some other schools (probably the less popular ones) with fewer pupils which will affect their finances. I would not personally regard that as "stealing" but it depends on your point of view.

So the school chooses to become a free school because of financial difficulties or altruism ??