Just in case someone tells you today how wonderful Gove was because he introduced Free Schools which will benefit the poorest children, please read the NUT on Free Schools: Free Schools are a flagship Government education policy. The Government claims that they represent a parent and teacher-led ‘schools revolution’ but just five per cent of the free schools approved to open in 2014 are being set up by parent groups while over half are being established by multi-academy chains, established mainstream schools or academies.1 Although still a tiny proportion of England’s schools (less than one per cent), free schools nevertheless have the potential to cause immense damage to our education system. Despite educating small numbers of children, free schools are receiving a disproportionate share of education funding. They have rightly been described as “unguided missiles” with the capacity to seriously undermine established schools. Removing the ability of local authorities to plan school places and the range of educational provision to meet all needs has moved England towards a chaotic system where efficient planning is much harder. New free schools can suddenly pop up in empty premises, with support and funding from Whitehall, regardless of the damage they may do locally. This is no way to run an education system. Our children deserve far better. Local authorities and communities have, in practice, no influence over whether or where free schools should open. Many have opened in areas with surplus places in the phase provided by the free school. Some parts of England are experiencing serious school place shortages, particularly in the primary phase, and it has become apparent that the free school programme cannot provide a solution. Free schools are answerable only to the Secretary of State and, where they fail to provide an acceptable standard of education, local authorities have no power to step in. Despite claims that free schools would “raise standards”, the evidence so far is that they are performing no better than maintained schools despite serving less representative intakes than their neighbours. Two years after the first free schools opened, it is time to take stock, examine the operation and consequences of the free schools’ programme and consider how a future Government should respond. The NUT believes the Government should take the following measures: • End the free school programme – there should be no further approvals of new schools through this route; • Bring open free schools with sustainable school rolls within the same legislative, regulatory and governance framework as maintained schools; • Work with each local authority to devise an action plan for the education of children in free schools where the school roll is unsustainable in the long term and where there are sufficient places in local schools to accommodate their pupils; • Restore legal powers to local authorities to enable councils to assume the central role in school place and provision planning; and • Restore the legal power to local authorities to choose to open a new maintained school and remove the academy or free school presumption.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 06:30:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015