Free Schools (Secondary) (sorry bit long) - HELP!!!

[mummysid]

Hi - hope someone can help with this, any information gratefully received.

We live in Bucks, so grammar county. We have a good grammar 8 miles up the road and equally a much improved non grammar. Both are very large schools. However, we have a new free school being opened this September less than a mile away.

The new Free school is only going to have a maximum of approx. 500 children when it is up and running fully. I believe in September it is opening with approx. 100 children at the most, mostly in year 7, some in year 8 and i'm not sure if any in higher years than that.

We have to put in school choices for our son by the end of October and I would think it unlikely that the Grammar will be in the running. So that really leaves us the with choice between the local non grammar and the new free school.

If the new Free school can offer everything it promises then it could be a great option but my concerns are...what if it doesn't, what if there is not enough of a mix of children there with it being so small, can it realistically offer everything a larger school could, ie, quality of teachers, subjects covered etc, would our son benefit long term from being at a bigger school before going into the big wide world, it's in a temporary building and will supposedly move into a purpose built one a year after my sons starts... and so the list of worries goes on.

I should add my son has very mild learning difficulties and although manages in a normal class has processing problems so keeping up can be an issue.

I love the idea of him being able to walk or cycle to school instead of taking a bus (and we'll lose the funding for this as obviously the new school is our closer option).

The larger non grammar school is reportedly good with learning difficulties but it is very big with larger classes (the free school reckons on 20 ish per class), would he get lost in the system when there as thankfully he's very well behaved but he gets lost in the system a bit.

The new Free school is apparently only streaming for maths - is this a problem?

So - sorry for my rather long story - but if ANYONE has any experience of Free Schools or advice on the above, please feel free to let me know. I am desperate for help on this one as am just going round in circles at the moment.... thank you x

Personally I would not consider the free school.

It might not open in time anyway and given that they have few limits to their approach to teaching, I would not trust the sales pitch and would want to see their curriculum and ethos in action before I would even entertain the idea.

Oh dear, thanks creamteas. I feel even more confused now though - they say their covering the same main exams etc as regular secondary, do you not think that would be the case then? What else may be different? I'm a bit of a novice at this whole secondary thing - I just went to the local comprehensive and that was that... and that was a very very long time ago!

I would be worried that a school of 500 will not have the economies of scale to offer as many choices as one of 1000 or even better 2000.

I would want to know if they had the facilities to cater for your son's SN. And would be rather dubious about only streaming for maths. And definitely want to know more about choices. Also about BTech options if your son turns out to develop an interest in something practical.

Free schools can be set up by any group approved by the Dept of Education and although have to offer a 'broad and balanced' curriculum, as far as I know, this is pretty much untested.

Most are set up because particular groups of people want a 'different' education (for example following a particular religion). There are very few controls on what they can do. They do not have to employ qualified teachers.

So a new free school is pretty much uncharted territory....

Academies also have some some of the 'freedoms' of free schools, but as most of these have converted from LEA schools, they have a longer track record to be judged against.

How hard is it to move schools if the free school didn't work out? (Sorry if I'm not following well)

A free school in a grammar area is not going to be a comprehensive school is it? Even if it pretends it is.

I'd look into the free school further, not all have weird specialisms, many are just parents' responses to the lack of school places in an area. Try and meet with someone from the group to ask questions you have - they will want to engage with parents with questions and should be very approachable to answer these. I'd be open-minded if I were you, my DC will be going to a free school and I can't wait.