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AAA_free-schools_briefing_apr2014 09/04/2014 14:29 Page 1 Anti Academies Alliance “Agood local school forevery ‘Free Schools’ briefing April 2014 child” FreeSchoolsinfreefall Gove approves Free School at cost of £45m at cost of £90,000 per pupil Gove's free school flagships are springing leaks at an alarming rate. Despite mounting criticism about the expense of the programme, a new free school costing £45m was revealed. According to the Independent a Department for Education source said that, while civil servants raised concerns over the £45m spent on a central London sixth form for just 500 students, Michael Gove was determined to push ahead with the Harris Westminster Sixth Form. Lord Harris is a former party treasurer who has donated millions to the Tories and his academy chain enjoys close relations with Gove and the Department. Elsewhere, because of funding cuts, sixth forms are making teachers redundant and limiting choices for post-16 courses. Margaret Hodge, chair of the public accounts checks on their quality, concerns about own children priority in admissions committee, whose own Barking standards in the free schools are before children in care or with special constituency faces a place crisis, increasing, and many are receiving educational needs. Charming! described the Harris Westminster poor Ofsted reports. expenditure as ‘outrageous’. Pet projects Effect on local schools Despite the austerity programme, the Place shortage Free schools can take pupils and government has pushed through this There is a well reported shortage of hundreds of thousands of pounds of £6 billion project based on free school places, with more than a quarter funding from other local schools. Free selective use of evidence. In 2012, the of a million extra places needed by schools can advertise for pupils by National Audit Office criticised a 2015. The government is relying on the criticising their neighbouring schools. £1 billion overspend on academies and market to provide school places for our For instance Hackney New School says free schools. Bolingbroke Free School children through groups of local it was set up ‘due to parental demand in Battersea, which the Ark academy parents starting up free schools. for better standards in local education’, chain opened in September 2012, These are state funded schools, and as but the government says Hackney’s received £25.95m from the academies, they are approved by and secondaries are already amongst the Department for Education in site report directly to the Secretary of State best performing in the country. acquisition and construction costs. for Education, with no local democratic Incidentally, the founders of the That would be enough to educate tens accountability. With no local authority Hackney New School trust give their of thousands of children in existing >>> AAA_free-schools_briefing_apr2014 09/04/2014 14:29 Page 2 Anti Academies Alliance >>> schools. If all children are to achieve their very best, it stands to reason that resources should be directed to all schools not just a handful catering for a tiny minority of pupils. The Secretary of State spent another half a million on the ‘New Schools Network’, a charity to champion free schools. Their founding chief executive has since been recruited to head up ‘Amplify’ – a subsidiary of the Murdoch empire which markets knowledge- loaded technology to schools. Divisive The Secretary of State says that free schools are designed to bring high quality education to hitherto deprived areas, but an analysis by the Financial Times in 2013 showed there are three to four times more free school bids in London and the South East than in Yorkshire and the North West. Poorer areas are receiving just a fraction of the new facilities. Data collected in 2012 shows that the overall proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals at free schools was 9.4 per cent, generally attended by children of better IES Breckland significantly lower than the national educated and wealthy families, making IES Breckland is a secondary school set average of 16.7 per cent. The West things even more difficult for children up in Suffolk – where there is no place London Free School says it takes more attending ordinary schools in poor shortage – by the Sabre Education disadvantaged children than its borough areas’ and he added: ‘Most of our free Trust. Sabre contracted the running of average but, when compared with its schools have ended up being run by the school to IES, a Swedish for-profit immediate neighbours, it’s taking fewer. companies for profit’. outfit. After just a year, the principal and The Academies Commission concluded In the US, Charter Schools were senior staff left the school and Ofsted that as more schools start to control their initially hailed as a great success for judged it inadequate and found the own admissions, there’s a risk of further children in poor areas but now they school had been ineffective in raising extending ‘game-playing’ around recruit fewer children with special standards or improving teaching. selection. needs or with free school meal Sir Peter Lampl, the Chairman of entitlement than district schools. Yet Al Madinah the Sutton Trust which seeks to even with this bias in admissions they Never far from the headlines, Al improve education opportunities for do not perform any better than their Madinah received the lowest Ofsted young people from non-privileged state run counterparts (CREDO study, ranking in October 2013, when it was backgrounds, said that government Stanford University 2009). described as dysfunctional. Revisiting a should focus on improving practice in The UK education system is among month later, Ofsted said that the faith every classroom rather than on the most socially segregated in the school ‘remains in chaos’. Education governance structures. world (OECD 2010) whereas Finland is minister Lord Nash, himself a free much less segregated; in fact it has no school and academy sponsor, has International comparisons private schools and no free schools. ordered the closure of the secondary Proponents often cite the initial success Finland has a systematic approach department, but primary pupils are set of Swedish free schools. However the involving every school and every to remain in an environment described Swedish education minister said ‘We teacher in improving teaching. High as unstable. Ofsted believed the have actually seen a fall in the quality of performing systems pay attention to founders to have limited knowledge or Swedish schools since the free schools every school, every teacher and every experience; does this call the DfE’s were introduced. The free schools are child. I approval process into question? AAA_free-schools_briefing_apr2014 09/04/2014 14:29 Page 3 ‘Free Schools’ briefing “Agood local school forevery child” other words a zero-hours contract. The can be Trojan horses for religious groups teachers won union recognition and had or businesses who want a slice of the the offending clause removed from their action. In the March 2014 TUC study contracts. ‘Education Not for Sale‘, Warwick Mansell and Martin Johnson explain that Picture: Ben Windsor Ben Picture: Kings Science Academy existing academy sponsors are the largest Despite a personal endorsement from category of bidders making it to interview David Cameron, the senior leaders and stage, rising from eight per cent in 2011 to governors at Kings Science Academy are 25 per cent in 2013. Parent/community still not taking effective action to tackle the group applications making it to interview areas identified for improvement by stage fell from 25 to 17 per cent over the Ofsted (February 2014). Local MP David period, while those from a ‘teacher-led Ward has suggested that ministers in the group’ fell from 24 to six per cent. The Department for Education (DfE) colluded DfE process for approving or rejecting with Sajid Raza, the principal of the free free schools is shrouded in secrecy with school, who was arrested in January 2014 the Secretary of State appealing his case as part of an investigation into financial with the Information Commissioner. irregularities, and Tory vice-chair Alan Lewis, who leases the land to the school at Seckford Foundation a cost of £300,000 a year. Defending the The Seckford Foundation operates financial arrangement, Lewis referred to private nursing homes and a private the six figure sum as a ‘peppercorn rent’. school in Suffolk. They’ve said that moving into the state school sector will Protesting in March 2014 Discovery New Free School help them cut costs in their private against the conversion of Discovery New School, a primary school enterprises. Although there were already Brixton College, in south London, into a Free School. in Crawley, West Sussex which opened in popular state comprehensive schools 2011, will be closed in July 2014 after nearby and no significant shortage of Victory at STEM6 Ofsted inspectors placed it in special places, Seckford put in a proposal to open Teachers at STEM Academy Tech City in measures and subsequent attempts to two free schools in Suffolk. Education Islington, north London are thought to be revive the school were judged to be unfit consultant Rob Cawley was recruited to the first to take strike action over poor and over-optimistic. The DfE withdrew its investigate whether the proposal was terms and conditions offered by free funding agreement leaving parents and viable. After deciding this proposal schools. The National Union of Teachers children without a school. The local should go ahead, Mr Cawley was agreed to ballot for strike action when the authority was left to pick up the pieces. appointed as executive principal of the school’s trustees said there would be “legal two free schools. The two schools opened consequences” if staff failed to sign a new Who is setting up Free Schools? in September 2012 with hundreds fewer contract which said ‘The school reserves Government spin will tell you that it is pupils than planned.