free schools | Schools Week

Three Ofsted inspections into free schools published in election run-up – compared to 10 last year

Only three Ofsted inspections into free schools were published in the run up to the election – compared to ten in the same period last year. Schools Week looked at the number of free school Ofsted inspections published between March 30th and May 7th this year, and the same period last year. Those are the dates of […]

Free schools: what to ask

Labour’s views are based on a reality that has long dissolved; free schools are no longer for white middle-class parents in areas where they are not wanted It’s nearing the end of the general election campaign and time to get down to the detail in education policies. But there’s one thing we know for certain: […]

David Cameron has NOT built the most new schools in history

In a press release today, the Department for Education claims: “This move brings the total number of free school places created since 2010 to almost a quarter of a million, making this policy the most successful new schools programme in national history with schools being created more quickly than ever before.” Except…. There are now […]

Who is the right group to monitor schools?

Having increasingly ‘freed’ schools from local government, it seems they still need to be monitored. But who should do it, and how? It’s now clear that whatever form the next government takes, further expansion of the academies programme is likely to continue. Equally clear is that the frameworks within which these more autonomous schools operate […]

State boarding schools: Partnerships: ‘Failures are not an option’

Holyport College, the first new free school to offer boarding places, opened in September and will eventually take 500 state pupils. It is a non-selective co-educational secondary school with a Christian ethos said to be modelled on an independent boarding school, with pupils divided into houses and doing homework at school. The aim is that […]

Schools Week editorials

Edition seven editorial Free school sixth-form offer £500 recruitment ‘incentive’ to pupils A proposed sixth-form free school advertising £500 incentives to new pupils is at best questionable, but at worst it’s an uncosted bribe. The ‘academic scholarship’ is not a bursary for materials, travel or meals, typically given to pupils with parents on low incomes. It […]

New ways of finding free school properties are needed urgently

As new free schools are due to open this month, some have opened in temporary accommodation and others have had to delay due to lack of suitable site. Natalie Evans suggests a better way forward. In many ways, the building should be the least important part of setting up a new school. Yet all too […]