New no-frills Private School opening in Durham?

[jessnthebeanstalk]

Has anyone listened to today's (20/06/18) You and Yours on Radio 4? It featured the new low cost private school opening in Durham in Sept 2018. Would you consider it for your LOs? It costs £52/week!

If they are doing a standard 190 days of education per year that is significantly less funding per pupil that they plan to run on than the state pay, so no, I wouldn't consider it.

What advantages will it offer over state education?

@softsheen freedom? If you are dependant on your government for your basic necessities what does that make you?

I think it's a great idea. 90% of children in this country are educated by the government. Thankfully the British government is fairly libberal and doesbt take advantage of the power they hold bit that is an obscene kind of power to give to your government. An accessible private sector is the first safeguard against a government that would want to abuse this power.

Slippery slope I reckon... thanks to the Tories we’ll see several more of these opening up in the next few years. Social ghettoisation will be even more pronounced. How lovely.

By far the biggest chunk of a state school's budget goes on staff wages. How will this private school afford to employ sufficient numbers of well-qualified staff, if it has a lower budget than a state school?

Racecardriver I'm not against private schools, for those that want and can afford to use them, but what is the point in paying anything if they don't offer some demonstrable advantage over the state sector, rather than just being 'different'?

It sounds very old fashioned in its approach (the website says something like learning through repetition and learning to recite Poems, children also learn Latin, and sport and music will be taught when 'necessary'.)
Lessons will also be 'teacher led', so not sure if they technically follow a curriculum, but surely that creates an issue if your going to mainstream school for secondary years if you don't know the basics learned in primary?
I also don't see how they can financially run a school on such little. The website references good quality teachers and access to good facilities and books.
Interesting to see how well this works!

I can't see how the finances would work.

In an article I read it said they had 100 expressions of interest and would open with YR- Y4

100 sets of fees would be 270k. Hiring 5 experienced teachers on M6 of the Teacher's pay scale would cost ~234k. They would have ~36k left to pay for premises, admin, curriculum budget... and that is assuming the Head and his founding partner were both happy to be 2 of the full time teachers and not paid additionally for leadership responsibility.

The proposed Head resigned from his previous Independent school after it because a Free School and was then rated inadequate. I can see why they might have had financial problems. His calculator is broken.

The head of this school was indeed head at another local school- this school was rated inadequate and put into special
Measures by ofsred as well as a notice to improve financially. Head left and school was taken over by a sponsor, shortly after the sponsor pulled out and now another is being sourced! Years of turmoil and the children and staff left to suffer... oh and head left with a unapproved 47k payoff... so yeah maybe not the best idea to start again an experiment with children’s education.

@LadyPeacock they only are looking for 2 teachers and they won't be on the National pay scale. They also need people who can 'look beyond a salary' and work for cheap

They also haven't been cleared by ofstead yet either.

So 50 kids in your class, but that will be OK because you will 'look beyond the salary'.

'Salary will be competitive where possible'...

Oh and terrifyingly in my opinion it has been approved by Ofsted.

What advantages will it offer over state education?
One of the proposed advantages is simply that it excludes problem pupils from deprived backgrounds as they don't have money for fees. So your child would only be mixing with the children of other working parents who have a few grand to spare.

Where will the kids go after year 4 then? Back into the state system? Ridiculous. I will saw something for the founders? Their promotion ability is great, substance for teaching kids... remains to be seen? Grindon hall might have an opinion

I wouldn't let those two blokes run a tombola stall at a school fair much less an actual school.

Agree. There is something very wrong with this. Take my advice, find as good a state school as you can, pay the £54 to the school coffers or save it for extra curricular activities for your child. Do not allow your child to be the latest experiment. prof Tooley may have done amazing work in third world countries but trying to replicate it in the north east is a step too far.

What a bizarre concept - I can't see this being successful. Why would anyone voluntarily spend money on an education like this when the state would spend more on your behalf for your child to be at a state school? And the no-frills thing - surely the "frills" are exactly why people pay for a private education. Small class sizes, individual attention, better facilities etc etc. This just seems to want to appeal to people who want the label of having kids at private school without the price tag, but surely it doesn't even achieve that either as it'll be known as the "easyJet" of private schools?!

Can't see they're going to entice the best teachers either. All very murky and odd.

No thanks. You're better off with a state school. Spend the money on extra activities.

makingtime
at 'very murky and odd', they could have that as the school motto

I don't like that it's not yet registers or approved by ofsted.

The numbers don't add up.

The page about teachers says they're only looking for 2 and that they will be underpaid.

It's also based on "Christian ethos" with a daily Christian assembly, although they " do welcome children of other faiths."

Not for me.

They’ll charge extra for Everything, I guarantee it. They won’t have school dinners, parents will have to provide all stationary including paper, art equipment, sports equipment. They’ll charge for every show, every assembly. I think they’ll have big classes and extras will be as much as the fees. I also think that the fees will go up rapidly. This is just to entice people in

If they are offering wraparound care for that price will probably be cheaper that what I am currently paying for nursery. Not the area we live in and we are very happy with the primary school we have for September

Haha - just read this on the website:

What it does mean is that we will focus on what makes the difference in education. That is not money. It is people.

Riiiiiighht. So next time there's a much needed PTA fundraiser at my kids' school I'll just explain this to them

The site itself looks very small (although there are building works going on alongside which is not clear if attached to the school or not). So no, I wouldn't (mainly on the track record of the head...) but thankfully am heading into year 11 so a stress free life awaits me

In my opinion it’s a vanity project and an educational experiment. Not for me

Aren't the "frills" essentially what paying for private education should get you?