Free school doesn't enter entire Y11 for any GCSEs as they would all fail.

[noblegiraffe]

www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/free-school-gcse-exams-no-year-11-pupils-mature-enough-not-ready-route-39-academy-north-devon-a7863006.html

There were only 13 pupils in Y11 at Route 39 Academy, but none of them were entered for any GCSEs, because they were 'neither academically ready nor sufficiently mature or resilient to have taken the examinations'.

What on earth is going on at that school?

What an utter waste of money. The parents who set it up have been very foolish and unfortunately it's their children paying the price. The people running it seem to be completely out of their depth to have failed so spectacularly. I've never seen an Ofsted that was inadequate in all areas. Most inadequate schools have a mixture of inadequate and RI. Some are even good in some areas.

80% of Alternative Provision settings are Ofsted Good or Outstanding. I work in one. We enter children for GCSEs. And other qualifications (e.g. Functional Skills). Not 8, but certainly Core subjects and some others.

I realise this is not a PRU. Just want to point out that that wouldn't mean an inadequate provision was more likely.

What really pisses me off is that there is a fancy new school building being currently constructed for this lot ready for next year and there won't be any pupils to go in it because the school is shit.

And I just read on this site (which has been against the Free School from the start) that the DfE paid £3million just for the site of the new building.
www.facebook.com/Route-39-Watch-554016301305078/

£3million for the land, then the huge amount of money for the building. What a total waste

That's appalling. Worst Ofsted I've ever read, with the possible exception of one for a failed UTC which has now closed (a serious risk for this school, I'd have thought, unless there is a need for the places, in which case it will presumably be transferred into a MAT).

I have just seen the website of the school ! I think if DD 1 leaves her Bucks Grammar now and joins Route 39 year 13 in September she will be Oxford bound next summer !

The pupils look very smart......

I am looking forward to Route 39 or Colyton Grammar conundrums coming up.

'Colyton requires a two hour train journey' 'Route 39 is a two minute walk' 'Bottom of the year @ Colyton or Top of the year at Route 39' type postings !

We use the best innovative practices to make learning inspirational, interesting and relevant, and to reflect this area’s unique rural and coastal environment.
Underpinning this is an ethos of Engage, Respect and Aspire. This runs through every aspect of the school.
Students will leave Route 39 Academy highly qualified and best equipped to excel personally, in the workplace, and in the community.

I am so impressed i am leaving Bucks

The head by the way jumped ship, before the 'atom' bomb dropped !

Students will leave Route 39 Academy highly qualified

...and aged 60, which is when they will finally be ready to sit their GCSEs.

Seriously you are right Noble ! I think there are going to be some very angry parents who have been sold a 'pup' in to buying in to this school.

I thought the school was not mainstream, hence the support from me.

Well i didn't get to University until 37 (sought of ) OU !

Are there any free schools that are doing well?

It's infuriating the money that is wasted on these schools when other state schools are struggling financially.

Are there any free schools that are doing well?
Michaela and Pimlico Primary in London are both free schools and rated outstanding. I know dc or teachers at West London Free School and Cobham Free School - they seem happy enough.

Route 39 Academy is something of a disaster. To be fair though the new school is being built to take 700 pupils so I guess a need for a school of this size has been forecast due to population increase/new housing.

Oh, look, there is a website dedicated to free school Ofsted ratings!Updated daily with Route 39 already listed.
philipnye.github.io/free-school-ofsted-ratings/

The majority of free schools already inspected appear to be doing very well.

Are free schools only built when there is a need for more school places locally? I understood that wasn't the case.

I think the idea is that the proposers of a new free school have to show that there is local need or demand for a new school, yes.

The thing is, my understanding is that there are different 'flavours' of free schools.

As LAs cannot open new schools, some free schools are created where LA schools would previously have been - need identified by LA, sponsors sought in an orderly manner, schools established using sensible expertise from existing schools. These aren't 'real' free schools, in many ways - they are simply called free schools because they can't be called LA schools any more.

Others are extensions of existing academy trusts, for the same reasons.

Other free schools - I note there are some Steiner schools on the list - are former fee-paying schools that have used this route to become state funded.

Still others - of which this seems to be one - are the original 'parent led' model, where groups of parents of varying expertise get together and decide to start up a school.

I suspect that if you divided the grades up into these types, it would be very revealing. A bit like the 'academy' label which lumps converter academies (self selecting Good or Outstanding schools, originally well-bribed though no longer) with forced / sponsored academies (usually failing schools) so that the average Ofsted grade for 'academies' as a group looks OK and the policy appears to be successful

(I live in a town which, through expansion, needs a couple of new secondary schools. The LA has identified this, and the sites, they have money from builders and from central government, and actually the slow bit is identifying schools or academy chains who are willing to sponsor them. It wold be MUCH more efficient for the LA to be able to get on and build them...but they can't...)

beautifulwintersmorning

I think that was the original idea. I read this story on the BBC news site where there is a link to a comment about this school by Michael Gove in which he defends the money spent on this school by saying it offers parents an alternative (way to waste taxpayers money) .

I hope he has the grace to apologise.

Just as an experiment, I opened a random selection of the 'Oustanding' schools and Inadequate ones in the Free school list.

All the Outstanding ones are actually academy schools opened as new schools by existing academy trusts - so not free schools at all by the original definition, a much more sensible designation would be 'Academy school'.

All the Inadequate ones that I opened were 'stand alone' free schools with their own board of trustees, as the free chools policy originally envisaged.

Interesting.

Obviously this is not going to get much support in this parish but if you allowed free schools to select academically, they would be very successful !

There are a lot of 'useless' free schools no doubt. This is because the whole of the teaching profession backed by Unions are out to destroy anything they see as a threat to their control.

That list of Free Schools is actually giving a better picture than things actually are. On the list of closed Free Schools, it doesn't have the huge number of UTCs and Studio Schools that have failed (not sure why it hasn't categorised those as Free Schools because they are), and it doesn't have the Free Schools which never opened.

According to this article, there are 62 Free Schools that closed, partially closed or never opened, which is more than there are outstanding schools on that list.

www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/tens-of-millions-wasted-on-free-schools-that-have-now-closed-a7685256.html

This is because the whole of the teaching profession backed by Unions are out to destroy anything they see as a threat to their control.

The whole of the teaching profession backed by unions can't even get a reasonable pay rise. What makes you think they can destroy anything?

The only power teachers have is to quit the job.

Flying,

I think you hav to udnerstand that most free schools are not genuinely 'free' schools in the way you imagine.

I think - though I am prepared to be corrected - that ANY new state school opened now has to open as a free school. So they aren't 'free' schools, so much as 'new' schools, and as far as i can tell, the majority of successful ones are opened by existing academy chains or by one or a group of existing successful schools.

These new state schools will be staffed from exactly the same pool of staff as all other state schools, though like other academies they can employ unqualified teachers.

There are a small number of 'free schools as originally conceived' - schools started by groups of parents or groups with a specific agenda. From a non-ezxhaustive random selection from the Inadequately-tated schools in the website linked, at least some of the worst-graded 'free' schools fit into this category.

Reading the reports, this does not appear to be because teachers have sabotaged them, nor unions - it is simply that the trustees (those running the schools) have little or no idea what they are doing or have been over-optimistic in their promises and unable to deliver them...

Teachers and Unions love LA controlled schools because like them the bureaucratic 'snail pace' of anything happening /changing protects them and keeps everything the same !

As soon as someone comes in without the bureaucracy of local government preventing change. The Teaching Unions to a man question and derail every single decision made by anyone outside their sphere of influence !