Meeting with the DCSF

The West London Free School Parents Group met with the Department of Children, Schools and Families and Ealing Council yesterday. The DCSF officials were very enthusiastic about our proposal, but as we expected they made it clear that unless we can show that Ealing's plans to increase the number of secondary school places between now and 2016 are insufficient to meet the anticipated increase in demand, we won't be able to persuade the Government to release the necessary funds to set up our school.

Consequently, we're now going to work with Ealing Council to do precisely that. That isn't going to be easy because Ealing has done a good job of preparing for the increase in demand -- it's setting up a new high school in Greenford, for instance. But we're cautiously optimistic that even with this additional capacity in place the number of secondary school places in Ealing still won't be sufficient to meet the demand.

Ultimately, our fate rests with the Secretary of State for Education. Together with Ealing Council, we’ll present the most persuasive case we can -- and if Ed Balls is serious about wanting Parent Promoter groups to set up schools, he’ll tell his officials to help us find a way through the maze. After all, there aren’t any other Parent Promoter groups out there trying to set up City Academies. If he does throw his weight behind us, we think it’ll be a big win for him. It will enable him to take the credit for the country’s first Parent Promoted Academy -- and if we’re successful, hundreds of groups will try and do likewise.