Another Headteacher gone from West London Free School?

[orangecurd]

According to the Good Schools Guide, Mr Naismith 'left abruptly in May 2014'. This must obviously have been in the last few days. Do any current parents (or anyone else) know more?

Actually, my list was accurate. Does that bother anyone?

Arf at 'did I not get a place'. Thank the Lordly I live in a different part of London.

For me, it's what the school represents - that a group of well connected parents who don't want to pay private school fees get millions of pounds of public cash to set up their own school despite knowing nothing about education, the channeling of funds originally ring fenced to ensure that all children actually get a school place into these types of vanity projects, and the (many) subtle and not so subtle ways of excluding some groups in the local community - that aggrieves me,.

And that not being capable of appointing and retaining a decent head seems to be no barrier to during another substantial lodge of public money.

Yy to the reasons stated above as to why it's oversubscribed. I have friends who live very near to there and couldn't face putting it on their application form, so are desperately waiting for other places to come up on waiting lists as they have no school place offer as yet.

Can barely understand the crusade against this school. I do live very close and can guarantee that it truly serves a very diverse community; which is one the main reasons why I like state education. As any school, it will not be everyone's cup of tea but why criticise so fiercely the investment in this school and not the state of the art facilities of for example Holland Park school or Hammersmith academy? I wish all schools could have the same luck!

Holland Park's rebuild was funded by the sale of a capital asset (part of the site). Not taxpayers money going down the drain to fund an ineffective school to gratify TY's ego. The school may be diverse in terms of ethnicity but I doubt it is in terms of wealth. No idea what the spend was on Hammersmith Academy, but I doubt they get through Heads as quickly.

Exactly carmemp. I also wish 'all schools could have the same luck' in terms of central government investment and support to succeed as WLFS.

Unfortunately, this isn't the case as public money is now being diverted from funds to ensure that ALL Children actually have a school place come Sept '15 to prop up Gove's failing free school projects.

On phone so can't link but Google 'Gove +lunacy' and you'll find it.

CarmenP if you don't understand the "crusade" against WLFS, then you haven't been reading this thread. I think the posters here have set out very effectively what the problems with WLFS are. Those problems don't disappear just because you describe calling attention to them as a "crusade".

Full disclosure on my part: I have no formal connection with any school (beyond my kid being a pupil at one), I am not a governor anywhere, I am not informally or formally advising any school body on any aspect of school governance or anything else - I am just a parent who cares about public money being thrown at a highly politicised vanity project. Would you like to declare the presence or lack of formal or informal connections to the free school movement? I'm not asking for names or details, and I'm certainly not asking you to out your identity, I just want to know if you have any connection or position, informal or formal. I'm beginning to be very suspicious of all these people coming into this thread to delare their wide-eyed surprise at the criticisms levelled at the WLFS. It somehow doesn't ring true.

Could say the same for you. So much antagonism doesn't ring true to me either...

The fact that you criticise anything in this website doesn't make it more or less real. You're giving your opinion and I'm giving mine. And you have to accept other people's opinions whether you like them or not!

Joins CarmenP's refrain. No professional or political interest whatsoever. Just points out that when we were lookin for a school for dd in 2008/9 we could find only two schools in three Boroughs: Wandsworth, Westminster and H&F that we were prepared to consider applying for and putting on the form. All I can say is that if the WLFS had existed then it would very likely have made that list. Of those schools I can attest to the fact that one of the two did not cut the mustard and we removed our daughter to the independent sector.

I note, CarmenP, that you didn't disclose anything about your association with the free school movement.

Arrived in this country one year ago so have absolutely nothing to do with any school movement in any shape or form. Happy now?

carmenp. Rather than speaking in terms of a 'crusade', have a look at the article below (which was covered in most of the broadsheets) and it might give you an idea of why so many people object to millions of pounds of public money being poured into one 'lucky' school whilst thousands of families are facing the very real possibility of having no school place for their child.

I hope that this doesn't sound patronising, but if you've only been in the UK a year you may not have a full picture of this government's de-regulation and privatisation of the education system, particularly the vast resources being poured into propping up academy and free school programmes which, in terms of results, aren't any better than maintained schools.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/may/10/gove-lunatic-raid-free-schools

Apologies in advance if I've got this wrong. But it doesn't follow that you're not part of a free school movement just because you only arrived a year ago. There are international schools operators proposing free schools in West London and some of their staff/supporters would have been based abroad until recently.

I think we're loosing the thread here focusing on CarmenP's affiliation...

That probably true enough. I'm just getting fed up with all these faux-innocent, wide-eyed posts lamenting that anyone might be so horrid as to expose the problems in these wonderful schools. If any of these wide-eyed free-school fans had actually read the thread, they'd see what the problems are. This isn't a difference of opinion or ideology, as some have tried to make out - this is a listing of facts.

Though, to be fair, if they are free-school shills, they aren't very good at it.

If I were a parent at the school, my main concern now would be my child being taught in portable cabins for so long and the provision of facilities at the many sites. I have a DS in secondary school and all his science lessons take place in the Chemistry, Physics and Biology labs, his MFL lessons in the language lab, same for ICT, same for DT, drama in the theatre, music in dedicated practice rooms with computers for composing, PE in the gym, and he makes extensive use of the big library... Will the Bridge Av site have all this? Or will they have to walk the half mile to Palenswick house - ready in 2 years? - just for a science lesson? We are talking about GCSE cohort here going to Bridge Av, not merely Year 7/8. Are they really going to provide BOTH sites with all the above mentioned facilities? Will they have two dedicated drama studios? Art studios? Labs?Will the Bridge Av building become the permanent site for the 6th form they have no room for at Palenswick? How long will all this take?
These are the questions that I would be asking my child's school. And I honestly would not stop till I had an answer...

Absolutely. There are several issues here - firstly, as forever points out the lack of clarity re: future planning and provision, leadership, high staff turnover etc at the school. This would be a concern to parents in any school, regardless of its status.

Secondly and, as someone with KS1 aged children my primary concern, what the hell will the education system be like in a few years if Gove is allowed to continue his relentless egotistical pursuit of his own agenda - free schools, academies, more testing, longer school days, more pressure on teachers etc - against the grain of all empirical evidence and educational research.

The WLFS courtesy of the well-connected TY is having millions of pounds of public money poured into it, WHICH IS BEING TAKEN FROM FUNDS ORIGINALLY RINGFENCED TO ADDRESS THE IMPENDING SCHOOL PLACE CRISIS ABOUT TO HAPPY IN LONDON.

Sorry for shouting, but people failing to grasp the bigger picture really worried me as the UK seems to be sleeping walking into even bigger disparity in terms of educational provision than was evident in the tripartate system.

HAPPEN IN LONDON, obviously.

Looking at their website - I see they now have a senior master - it says 'has now been promoted to senior master' He has 10 years experience - does this mean he is in charge of the school?

Two of the assistant heads have 2 years experience prior to WLFS and one has 4 years. This seems to be a very inexperienced leadership team

forever I spent my whole secondary school time being taught in portacabins (my form room was a portacabin for the 4th and 5th form). No noticeable negative effects - apart from a lifelong habit of huddling round any radiator I encounter.

Just had an interesting look at the DfE stats for schools in the Hammersmith area. They show the following percentages for pupils on free school meals:

WLFS: 24.9
Burlington Danes: 45.6
Fulham Boys (before it became an Academy): 50.1
Fulham Cross(Ditto): 43.6
Hurlingham: 38.2
Hammersmith Academy: 38.3
Phoenix: 59.1
William Morris: 50
Lady Margaret: 12
Sacred Heart: 6.3
London Oratory: 7

I've grouped those last three together because they are all faith schools with complex admission systems which have caused quite a bit of controversy over the years and have enabled them to take pupils from as far away as Downing Street (in the case of Sacred Heart and Oratory to which Tony Blair's children went); and they produce results which frankly aren't feasible with a truly comprehensive intake. The stats show broadly similar divergency on other statistics, for example SEN/School Action Plus where WLFS and Lady Margaret that 3.3% whilst Fulham Boys, Phoenix and Hurlingham have respectively 16.5, 14.3 and 21.5.

So there's a great divide in Hammersmith with WLFS not quite as blatantly low on the free school meals measure as the three covertly selective faith schools, but still a long, long way off what the majority of local schools are dealing with. The reality is its intake clearly isn't reflecting the local population.

Ici, I know what you are saying BUT it would also be fair to say must of those schools have very bad reputations and don't reflect the social make-up of the local area because the middle classes often feel they must go private. The area around WLFS has a lot of very well off streets and the school did a lot to persuade parents who were drawn to the private sector to consider this state offering instead. So WLFS has more middle class students as well as those on free school meals but that might actually mean its more reflective of the local community, not less. I am not commenting on whether that is a good thing or not.

That's an interesting point AAA. My kids' primary is about 45% fsm, I think. I know at least a dozen kids in every year who live near the school and have gone private. If they were all in the school and displaced kids on fsm (unlikely I know but for the sake of argument), then the school would be about 25% fsm which would in fact reflect the area better than at present. Again not commenting on whether this would be a good thing or not.

I wonder what the total percentage of school age children on fsm is in a given area as opposed to the percentage within state schools.

AAA does Hammersmith Academy really have a bad reputation? I didn't think so. And there are a lot of low-income families in the area, as well as the more visible middle-class ones.

The new leadership team would never, ever, be appointed in a state or independent school. 10 years teaching experience is probably enough to be a deputy head if you are very talented. Rarely is it enough to be a head of a secondary school or "senior master". A few years experience is nowhere enough for the other members of the leadership team either. What can they possibly have learnt about teaching and management in a few years which will put them in a strong position to lead others? Irrespective of the rights and wrongs of free schools, these appointments sound ludicrous.