Only 16 radical new ‘free schools’ have won the backing of the Department for Education, it has been announced.
The ‘free schools’ - realised as a policy by education minister Michael Gove in the early days of the coalition government - have a variety of eccentric and idiosyncratic educational agendas and philosophies.
This includes policies at the approved West London Free School – where Latin will be a compulsory subject – and the King’s Science Academy in Bradford – which aims to liberate inner city children from ‘ghettoisation’.
Other new free schools have less grand aims, such as improving literacy and reducing class sizes.
Teaching unions and opposition political parties have widely criticised the free schools policy. Chris Keates, general secretary of The NASUWT teacher’s union, described the policy as ‘more to ideology than a genuine attempt to improve schools’.
Mr Keates said: ‘The fact that only 16 have been announced in the first instance, only confirms a recent Ipsos MORI poll which showed that 96% of parents and the public oppose the Coalition Government’s free school policy.
‘The public has demonstrated once more that it want good local schools run by democratically accountable local councils.’
Former Education minister Ed Balls said the fact that only 16 schools have been approved – and that Michael Gove had said this ‘exceeded his expectations’ – was ‘laughable’.
The approved schools are:
- Bedford and Kempston Free School, Bedford Borough
- The Childcare Company, Slough
- Discovery New School, West Sussex
- The Free School Norwich, Norfolk
- Haringey Jewish Primary School, Haringey
- I-Foundation Primary School, Leicester
- King’s Science Academy, Bradford
- Mill Hill Jewish Primary School, Barnet
- Nishkam Education Trust, Birmingham
- North Westminster Free School (ARK), Westminster
- Priors Marston and Priors Hardwick School, Warwickshire
- Rivendale Free School, Hammersmith and Fulham
- St. Luke’s School, Camden
- Stour Valley Community School, Suffolk
- West London Free School, Ealing or Hammersmith and Fulham
- Wormholt North Hammersmith Free School (ARK), Hammersmith and Fulham (to be known as Burlington Primary Academy)
