Welcome to the website of the West London Free School.
Welcome to the website of the West London Free School. Our parent group met for the first time at the beginning of September and much has happened since then. I’ve set up a Steering Committee (see ‘Team’) and we’ve been busy working out how best to do this. It’s been a steep learning curve, as you might imagine. We’ve been lucky in that we’ve received a lot of helpful advice from the New Schools Network (http://www.newschoolsnetwork.org), an organisation that has sprung up to help groups like ours. I’d encourage any parents wanting to set up schools to contact the director Rachel Wolf (rachelwolf@newschoolsnetwork.org).
Our initial plan was to try and start a Swedish-style “free school”, but that would have meant waiting for the Conservatives to get elected and change the rules regarding what sort of schools parents can set up. If we did that, we wouldn’t be able to admit our first Year Sevens until September, 2012 -- and even that is optimistic. We might have to wait until 2013 or 2014.
Consequently, we’ve decided to press ahead under the existing rules and try and start a City Academy. Until recently, this wouldn’t have been possible without finding a sponsor willing to put up £2 million, but Ed Balls waived that requirement in July, partly to make it easier for groups like ours to start schools. Indeed, he is encouraging Parent Promoter groups to come forward and try and set up Academies.
According to the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), the first thing a group like ours needs to do is enlist the support of their Local Authority (LA). Consequently, we’ve met with several members of Ealing Council and told them about our vision. So far, they’ve been very supportive, particularly Jason Stacey, the leader of the Council, Ian Gibb, the Councillor who holds the portfolio for Children’s Services and Gary Redhead, the Assistant Director of Children’s Services.
The next step will be persuading the DCSF that a new school in Ealing is needed. Under the existing rules, anyone hoping to set up an Academy must first prove that there’s going to be a deficit of secondary school places in their borough over the next ten years or so. Only after the DCSF has accepted that will it consider a proposal for a new school. That means we’ll need to work with Ealing Council and the DCSF, as well as an organisation called Partnership for Schools, to demonstrate that there is enough demand for a new school in the area. Projecting demand for pupil places is an inexact science -- birth rates are, by their very nature, unpredictable -- and whether our group progresses will depend on how the available information is interpreted. My hope is that all the bodies concerned will prove helpful. Another possibility is that Ed Balls may change the criteria himself, dropping the need for a lot of jiggery-pokery regarding pupil place projections. These rules aren’t statutory, so he could change them without an Act of Parliament. That would certainly help groups like ours and encourage other parents to come forward.
If we do fail to progress under the existing rules we’ll simply wait until next year and then re-apply -- the Tories have pledged to make it easier for parents to set up schools and that includes waiving the need to demonstrate a deficit of supply. But I’m optimistic that our initial bid will be successful. Given that we’re one of the first parent groups to attempt this I hope the DCSF will see the wisdom of helping us progress under the existing rules. In all likelihood, the route we take will be the one followed by our successors and if the DCSF want to encourage other parents groups to work with LAs, rather than attempt to go round them, they’ll be as supportive as possible.
To a great extent, whether we succeed at our first attempt depends on how popular the officials within Ealing Council and organisations like Partnership for Schools -- as well as the DCSF -- believe the policy of encouraging parents to set up schools will be. Will hundreds of groups like ours spring up over the next five years, demanding new schools? If they believe that’s the direction the wind is blowing in, they will get behind us and help us carve out the critical path that other groups will follow -- a path that preserves their stewardship of the whole process of setting up new schools.
I have no doubt that we are blazing a trail on behalf of thousands of parents, if not tens of thousands. The instant response to my call to arms -- with 250 local parents signing up immediately -- tells me that there is a huge demand for the sort of school we want to start. But you can help us press our case by joining our group. Just email me on newfreeschool@googlemail.com telling me you’d like to join and I’ll sign you up. I may ask you to help at some point in the future, but I can’t think of a more worthwhile cause. The day the West London Free School opens for business will one of the proudest days in any of our lives.
