West London Free School

A group of about 600 West London parents, mainly based in Ealing. Most of us have children at local state primaries and the idea is to start the kind of secondary school we’d like them to go to. The group is made up of a broad cross section of people, but the Steering Committee is dominated by teachers, including the director of academic management at Latymer Upper School. 

One that offers an academically rigorous education that will prepare children from all parts of the local community to be tomorrow’s leaders. The focus of the curriculum will be classical civilization and every pupil will be expected to learn Latin up to the age of 14. After that, they can give it up but if they'll have to do a Modern Foreign Language instead. Ideally, they'll do both. The school will be open to anyone -- there are no fees and it will be non-selective -- but expectations will be high, both of pupils and staff, with every member of the school encouraged to be the best they can be. An outstanding level of pastoral care will be a priority. 

We want to broaden the choice available to parents in our part of London by offering a type of education that isn’t provided by other state schools in the area. A classical education forms the bedrock of Britain’s most successful independent schools and we don’t see why it shouldn’t be available in the state sector, too. It’s a powerful tool that should be accessible to children from all parts of the community, not just the most privileged. It is the ideal preparation for future success -- not in a narrow, vocational sense, but in a broad, intellectual sense. Latin, in particular, trains children how to think logically and intuitively, an essential requirement if they’re going to excel in other subjects. There is substantial evidence that children who study Latin outperform their peers when it comes to reading, reading comprehension and vocabulary, as well as higher order thinking (computation, concepts and problem solving). For chapter and verse on this see A.K. De Vane, Efficacy of Latin Studies in the Information Age and N. Mavrogenes, Latin in the Elementary Schools: A Help for Reading and the Language Arts.

Partly because it’s the kind of education we’d like our children to receive, but also because we want to help children throughout the neighbourhood realise their potential. As income inequality has increased in Britain, social mobility has ground to a halt, with privilege becoming more solidified at one end of the spectrum and poverty more entrenched at the other. Nothing can be accomplished in life without hard work, but we believe life’s prizes should be available to anyone. Gender, class and ethnicity should be no barrier to reaching the top in any field, provided you’re willing to apply yourself. The overall aim of the West London Free School is to produce young men and women who have the confidence and the ambition -- and the self-discipline and the creativity -- to take on all-comers, no matter how many advantages they enjoy. 

Yes -- the Renaissance Arts Academy in Los Angeles. This is a charter school in East LA started by a couple of classical music lovers who wanted to offer local parents an alternative to the existing high schools. Every child has to learn either the violin, the viola or the cello and Latin is compulsory. It’s by no means a middle-class school -- 60 per cent of its pupils are eligible for free school meals and only 18 per cent are Caucasian, the rest being Hispanic and African-American -- and it consistently gets the best exam results in the East LA School District. You can learn more about it here http://www.renarts.org

The idea of a parent-run school is controversial -- some people still think the Man in Whitehall knows best -- but we believe parents should be as closely involved as possible in the schools their children are at. There is already one shining example of what we'd like to do in the form of Elmgreen (http://www.the-elmgreen-school.org.uk/), a school set up by a group of Parent Promoters in Lambeth. Obviously, all the decisions relating to the education provided by the school, such as the curriculum and staffing, will be in the hands of educational experts. Once the school is up and running we want to be as involved as possible, but as Governors, not as members of staff. The school will be staffed by professional teachers. In all likelihood, the people currently on the Steering Committee will form the Board of Governors. 

Some people have accused us of being middle class pushy parents and that’s broadly true, but it doesn’t mean only other middle class parents will apply to the school. In fact, when we've told members of the local community about our plans, by far the most enthusiastic reaction has been from non-middle class members of ethnic minority groups. We anticipate that the students at our school will reflect the socially and ethnically mixed nature of the area -- which is exactly what we want.

One argument we hear a lot is that instead of trying to set up a new school we should send our children to the local comprehensives and devote our energy to trying to improve them. The problem with this is that it ignores the need for a new secondary school in the area. The population of Ealing has grown dramatically in the past few years, as the increased demand for primary school places demonstrates, so there's no question that we need a new secondary school. The issue is: What kind? We already have an excellent mainstream comprehensive in the form of Acton High School (http://www.actonhighschool.co.uk/) which was rated "good" in its latest Ofsted report, so if we want local parents to have more choice there's no point in starting another school like that. We believe the sort of school parents want is a school more like Twyford C of E High School (http://www.twyford.ealing.sch.uk/), but which is open to Christians and non-Christians alike. Twyford had 682 applicants for 120 places in 2009, so there's no question that there's enough local demand to justify setting up a similar school. Twyford has an almost identical ethos and curriculum to the one we'd like to start. The difference is, ours will be secular. 

Another argument we hear is that a school like ours will act as a magnet for all the children in the area who are most interested in learning, thereby having a negative effect on schools like Acton High. I don't believe that's true. The Swedish government made it easier for parents to set up schools in 1992 and now 17 per cent of Swedish children of secondary school age are educated in what are called “free schools”. However, this hasn’t had a negative impact on “municipal schools” (the Swedish equivalent of comprehensives.) In fact, the general standard of education in Swedish comprehensives has gone up since free schools were introduced. (You can see chapter and verse on this here http://www.ifn.se/Wfiles/wp/WP578.pdf.) 

What has happened in Sweden is that where municipal schools have begun losing motivated students to nearby free schools, the municipal schools have started duplicating some of the things the free schools are doing, such as setting in Maths, Sciences and Modern Languages. If Acton High School discovers it's losing motivated students to the West London Free School, that's what it will do. 

The West London Free School will be set up as an Academy and, as such, will be financed directly by the Department for Education.

In the London Borough of Ealing. 

At the moment, we’re aiming to admit our first Year Sevens in September, 2011. We may have to delay opening by a year, depending on the progress we make in finding a suitable building and how much support we get within the Department for Education, but we don’t anticipate opening any later than 2012. That means if your child is currently in Year Four or below he or she will definitely be eligible -- and they might be eligible if they’re in Year Five. Keep checking this website for updates.

Email us at newfreeschool@gmail.com telling us you’re interested in applying for a place and we’ll then notify you when the school opens for admissions. 

If you’re interested in helping, email us at newfreeschool@gmail.com. If you don't have any specific skills to contribute, don't worry. One area in which everyone can to help is in getting the message out and you can start doing that straight away. If you know parents of young children living in Ealing or nearby, tell them about the school and encourage them to email us. The more evidence of local demand we can show, the easier it will be to set up the school. And remember, it's important to encourage as broad a cross-section of people to apply as possible. Provided the child is willing to learn, we want him or her at our school. 

Yes. Being a sponsor could mean making a financial commitment or, if you have already been involved with schooling, it could mean working as an education partner. If you know of anyone interested in sponsoring the school -- or you are that person -- please get in touch. 

If you want to start a parent-run school in your area, contact Rachel Wolf at the New Schools Network on rachelwolf@newschoolsnetwork.org. The New Schools Network has been set up to help parents and teachers start schools. She can tell you exactly how to do it.