Free schools: a price worth paying?

By Andy Slaughter MP

Expect to read a lot about the 24 ‘free’ schools opening in England in the next few weeks. Not because this is a significant change in the education system but because it is a ideological priority for the government. Indeed the 24 represent an increase of 0.1% in the number of schools and a desultory outcome to the 760 expressions of interest originally claimed. In Hammersmith two of a mooted four schools are going ahead but will open in either incomplete or temporary buildings. But expect them to receive national attention while the new Hammersmith Academy, a new secondary school built under the Labour government’s academies programme, quietly gets on with its job.

Beyond the hype free schools are a niche market. Some are catering for minority faiths, others are projects by people who happen to have the ear of ministers. They are unlikely to make a dramatic difference in Hammersmith. The primary school in Wormholt was rescued by ARK, who run Burlington Danes, when the original project stalled and is now going forward as a standard academy. It is also half the intended size, taking only 30 pupils this year. The secondary school in central Hammersmith will in fact recruit from all over west London, with perhaps only half its pupils coming from the borough.

While I do not agree that scarce resources should be ploughed into an experiment which, as Andy Burnham said this week, increased segregation and reduced results when tried in the Swedish education system, I wish the all the new schools well for the sake of their pupils.

However, the government’s decision to promote the free school agenda has already caused collateral damage to existing schools. The original budget of £50m is said to be already £130m. I have been asking for details of the costs of local free schools for months, and have been denied these by both the council and the department of education. However, the Financial Times was told this week that the capital cost of the West London Free School was £15m. Previously ARK told me they were bidding for £6m to build and equip their school and expected to receive the land and building, worth around £1m a gift from the council, though this was for the bigger scheme. What is not clear is how the WLFS site has been valued (previous estimates have ranged widely from £2m to £8m depending on land use) and whether the council expects to receive any payment for this.

Of course, I have no objection to the government putting £20m plus into new school building in the constituency, especially at a time when they have stopped almost all capital projects, but let’s not forget the back story to this. In two weeks’ time I am speaking at the opening of Phoenix High School’s new sixth form, which like the Burlington Danes and Hammersmith Academy new buildings are testament to Labour’s commitment to improve all our secondary schools. But the remainder of the £200m promised under the Building Schools for the Future programme has been cancelled and it is this, in part, that is funding the free schools.

So while William Morris, Sacred Heart and Phoenix pupils have each lost around £20m for essential rebuilding of old, tired and inadequate building, nothing is too much trouble for the Tories’ pet project. This is simply inequitable. The principal at William Morris has been asking for ten years for a small piece of adjacent land owned by the council into which to expand. The school’s success means it teaches 850 pupils in building meant for 550. This week I was told they must wait at least another two years. But to accommodate the free schools local voluntary groups are being evicted, temporary premises found and refurbished and every planning and building regulation bent to accommodate them.

There is no logic or planning to the growth of free schools. There is a current need for more primary places in the borough, though that didn’t stop the council closing Peterborough school to sell the site to a private French school. But, as I disclosed last week, they are intending to evict over 800 primary children from their schools as part of the cuts in Housing Benefits that will force poorer families out of London.

The Financial Times, also reveals that the WLFS will take about 17% of pupils eligible for free school meals. This is about half the borough average and a third of Phoenix’s intake. This fact alone suggests the special status and privileges given to free schools are not justified. I believe – like most political gimmicks in education – they will be short-lived and look forward to welcoming them into the educational mainstream sooner rather than later.

This post was originally published here.