Stop this chaotic and dysfunctional experiment now

The Free Schools experiment is descending into chaos. In the space of one week, it was revealed that one Free School in Derby was being threatened with having its funding cut off having been described as ‘chaotic and dysfunctional by Ofsted, while the headteacher of another ‘pioneering’ Free School in Crawley resigned from the school she and her husband set up after Ofsted condemned the school’s performance and then described the recovery plan as ‘not fit for purpose’. The Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt wrote to Michael Gove calling for greater accountability and transparency for Free Schools, and saying that ‘a dangerous ideological experiment has been allowed to run out of control’. Then, to cap it all off at the weekend, the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said it ‘made no sense to him’ to allow Free Schools to employ unqualified teachers and be able to diverge from the national curriculum (as an aside, while we welcome Nick Clegg’s realisation that the policy he voted through is fundamentally flawed, it doesn’t say much for the Deputy Prime Minister’s judgment that it took till now for him to work this out).

So what’s going on? While the Conservative Party would like to dismiss this as a few duds, it is becoming clear that, as Laura McInerny argued recently, what’s taking place is the entirely predictable result of the ‘freedoms’ granted to Free Schools and the policy of railroading them through in defiance of any democratic process.

To understand why that’s the case, it’s worth looking at what happened with the Al-Madinah Free School in Derby in a bit more detail.

A case study in chaos

In September 2012, the Al-Madinah Free School opened in Derby and later that month the local press broke stories that non-Muslim teachers were being obliged to wear the hijab. By the end of the month, further allegations had resulted in the Department for Education conducting two separate investigations and Ofsted brought forward an inspection, on the first day of which the school was closed for ‘Health and Safety’ reasons when it was found that the school had failed to carry out adequate child protection checks on staff. In early October, Lord Nash, the minister for schools, wrote to the school threatening to terminate its funding agreement, effectively closing it, if it didn’t undertake immediate emergency measures.

The reports from the Department and Ofsted were devastating. On teaching standards, Ofsted said that the school was inadequate in every category and ‘dysfunctional’. Pupils were given the same work to do despite very different abilities, while classes were delivered by inexperienced teachers without proper training, sold to parents as ‘industry experts’. Almost all the Early Years Foundation stage teaching was found to be inadequate. The school was also unable to say how many special needs pupils it had in its intake.

The original investigations were launched as a result of allegations of that female teachers were obliged to wear the hijab and boys and girls were segregated in lessons and lunchtimes. Lord Nash’s letter to the governors made clear that staff were to be told that they did not have to cover their hair, and that the school had to cease any practices that had as their reason, cause or effect that women and girls were treated less favourably than men and boys.

Both Ofsted and The DfE identified the fact that the school was appallingly governed. Ofsted found that the school had ‘been set up by representatives of the community with limited knowledge and experience’. Inexperienced and untrained Governors had ‘failed to ensure children were safe in the school, failed to appoint properly qualified staff and as a result had been unable to monitor the school or hold it properly to account. The Governors, Ofsted said ‘had failed the parents of this community who have placed trust in them’.

On every count these are the consequences of the so-called freedoms of the Free School: the ‘right’ to hire unqualified teachers, the promotion of state-funded faith schools operating outside local authority regulation and most of all the flawed governance and the complete absence of democratic oversight.

How did the supporters of the Al-Madinah school ever get approval from the DfE? As we’ve pointed out repeatedly in relation to Oasis and Tauheedul’s applications, the process for getting approval to open a Free School is completely absurd and utterly opaque. There is no genuine, open local consultation, no real coordination with the Local Authority and the dealings between Free School promoters and the Department for Education are clouded in mystery. Once the promoters of the Al-Madinah school got approval from the DfE, there was no way for parents to hold their school to account. If local teachers hadn’t gone to the press, how long would children gone on being treated like this? Who was there to hold the governors to account on behalf of the children, the parents, the community and the parents?

It’s not just the Al-Madinah School either. A parent at the Discovery Free School in Crawley told the press “my children were not getting the teaching they deserved and that we were promised. On reflection I think one of the reasons was that the teachers were not trained. And you could not complain to anyone. It was all run by the same family.”

No one takes any pleasure in this. Reading through the Ofsted report on Al-Madinah, it’s impossible to feel anything but deeply sad and angry for the 400 children at this school and their parents. But the fact that the Education Secretary continues to drive forward this policy without regard for any warnings, either before or since this week’s revelations demonstrates just how dangerous he is.

What does all this mean for the people of Waltham Forest?

Education is a big issue in this borough. We know this from the fact that meetings on schools in Waltham Forest are getting bigger all the time. There are a lot of anxious parents out there.

If you are a parent and you are opposed to these schools, we would ask you to help us to build our petition in favour of a Local Authority led alternative involving our community schools. We know that they have a plan to provide a place for everyone who needs it in our community schools and to build a new school that would be accountable to our community.

If you are a parent who has actively supported one of the proposed Free Schools, we would beg you to think again. Everyone wants the best for their children but this is not necessary and it’s not the right way, either for your child or for the others who will be affected by a new Free School.

If you are a parent who is thinking about putting your child’s name down for one of the proposed Free Schools we would ask you a few questions:

· Are you confident that you really know about the people who are going to run this school?

· Are you confident that the proposed school has been subjected to proper independent oversight by the Department for Education? It certainly hasn’t been scrutinised by anyone else.

· Are you prepared to take the risk that your child will not be like the 400 children in Derby?

· Are you confident that you know how you will hold this school to account?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, then sign our petition instead and join the campaign for good schools for all our children in Waltham Forest.

 

We've passed 500

More than 550 people have now signed our petition with quite a surge in the wake of the news that there is an alternative to the proposed Free Schools.

Please help us to make it much bigger.

Circulate the online petition link as widely as you can:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/support-waltham-forests-local-community-schools.html

Can you help us by downloading a petition and collecting signatures locally?
Download our hard copy petition here


And here are just a few of the comments we've received on the petition from local residents and parents :

"I support LBWF in their proposal to provide state back secondary education for all in Walthamstow and hope the DfE will do the same."

"I would like the whole community to stay together after primary into secondary school. Otherwise it's segregation. The council needs the funds to set up inclusive community schools for all. Secondary education must be a priority. Let excellent primary schools become through schools so they can also provide the secondary years and give parents confidence that children will be looked after well from 11 years up. Keep religion out of schools. Tolerate everyone's beliefs but don't promote religions in school time. Just let children and families practice their religions at home and in their own individual way at school. There is a urgency to provide more secondary quality education. There is a big
demand on primary places and this is going to carry through to secondary."

"My children currently attend Buxton Primary and will go through to the Secondary phase. I fully support this school not only as a parent, but as Primary Staff and in the past as a Parent Governor."

"We have good community schools serving the entire community. Let us not undermine this by pandering to religious groups and middle class parents whose fears are based mainly on ignorance of what the state system has to offer."

"Please consider this petition and the very sensible points it raises. Don't destroy our local school system."
 

"Support existing schools, and promote integration, rather than segregation."

"We have a 19 month toddler and would like to settle in Waltham Forest long term. We are soon to be moving to Leytonstone. However, we need to be sure that there will be enough secondary school places and good enough schools in the borough. I don't believe in 'free' schools run by, and for, a select few. Quality education should be available to all, this should be a basic right like the National Health service."
 

"Creating new schools, allowing them to select, thus "proving" they work does not raise standards for all, only widens the gap."
 

"I feel that all options should be explored before resorting to a free school. In this incredibly diverse community there is such a strong argument for community schools that bring everyone together rather than specialist schools which could drive people apart."

"I am a School Governor in Waltham Forest. Both schools where I am a Governor are Waltham Forest LA schools. There is already provision for single sex education for Secondary School students. I believe that all children in this Borough should have access to the National Curriculum and have fully trained Teachers and Support Staff."


"We need to focus investment on our existing secondary schools and, in particular, invest in some proper sixth form provision as all the secondary schools only run to 16 and therefore limit the pool of possible applicants for teaching posts as the best secondary teachers often prefer to have some A level teaching opportuniities."


"The proposed Free Schools are not necessary, will divide our community and will take scarce resources away from our existing schools. All local schools need to be under local control accountable to tax payers."

300 signatures in a week!

A massive thank you to everyone who has signed our new petition. It took us just over a week to reach 300. When you think that our last petition took a month to reach 200, that is a testament to the growing profile that this issue has in the borough.

We're getting good coverage in the local press too, with recent reports in the Walthamstow Guardian, which you can read here and also, more recently, here.

We need to keep on pushing now to make this petition as big as it can be before the end of term.
We have a real chance to stop the proposed Free Schools and to win support for an alternative solution to the demand for secondary school places that allows our community schools to expand.

How you can help us build the petition:

We have been out petitioning and leafleting around the schools this week and we're out again next week. This is our known petitioning schedule over the next week:

Fri 5 July: 8:30am @Henry Maynard Juniors (Mel and Mickey)

Mon 8 July: 8:30am @ Barncroft (Mark - 07881 586667)

Mon 8 July: 8.45am @Winn’s (Jonathan)

Tues 9 July: 8.30am @Henry Maynard Juniors (Mel an Jonathan)

 Fri 12 July: 3:30pm @ Thomas Gamuel (Mark - 07881 586667)

If you can join us and help us, please do!

If you can do your school and want some support, email us at wfdefendstateschools@gmail.com and we will try to get someone to come and help you.

If there is anything you can do to help get our petition circulating on networks or email lists in the borough that you may be part of please do so. Every signature counts.

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/support-waltham-forests-local-community-schools.html

Follow our campaign:

Sign up for blog updates on our homepage.

Also, follow us on Twitter at @OurSchoolsE17

And we're on Facebook here:https://www.facebook.com/groups/577376562284827/

And here are just a few of your comments so far:

This is just a few of the comments left on our petition, giving a flavour of the kind of response we're getting and the concerns being raised by residents of Waltham Forest:

“We need resources putting into our excellent existing schools, not fringe groups trying to set up non-accountable schools that are not wanted by the majority.”

“I would like the goverment to focus on improving existing community schools rather than giving money to free schools - often faith-led - who will not be held accountable to the local community.”

“I think I can say that what most of us want is good quality state schools that have democratic oversight by local authorities. I think people locally should have the right to decide what sort of system they want, what works for them as a community in other words.”

“Free schools built in the wrong place without local consultation are a scandalous waste of money during times of austerity, taking much needed funding away from the majority of children in an area, to fund a privileged few. Free schools are blighting our communities and turning parents against each other! Proponents of Free Schools do not consult the local community and their impact statements are laughable. Problems are appearing all over the country, from Bideford to Stoke Poges, London to Suffolk and beyond. It is a disgrace and our kids deserve better from this government!”

“Please save us from Free Schools. There are some highly dubious groups involved in them in Waltham Forest, including an organisation that is proud of its Christian ethos on its website, but does not mention it at all in literature aimed at parents in LBWF.”

“I am against Free Schools, the main reason being that we have done decades of work to integrate our various faiths within one community and I am proud of our country's efforts to do this. If something as important as education is to be conducted seperately this sends us back decades at a time when extremists would love to promote exclusivity. This can only be bad for the community and more importantly bad for the children.”

“The lack of accountability for free schools is very worrying. They are undermining the state school sector and are also largely faith based which only encourages segregation and exclusion.”

“I feel that free schools, especially faith schools will deepen the divide in the community. Until recently Waltham Forest, a very diverse cultural community, appears to have little racial discord. I worry that with the recent upturn in religious motivated crimes, that segregating pupils will lead to an inherent lack of cohesion between faiths in my community. My children went to a good local community school, with strong community ethos and clear regulations, set out by the Local Education Authority, that had to be followed. I strongly disagree with this proposal and feel that free schools will undermine the great work done by community schools in this area.”

“We have local schools that are rated very highly by Ofsted and which form the central focus of our tight knit community. The way forward is to support these schools that are used by all members of our community, not to bring in these Free Schools.”

“The Local Authority is best placed to monitor demand and ensure schools have the capacity to cope. What happens to free schools once demand shrinks?”

Our new campaign launched: Support your local community schools!

We have today launched a new petition in support of our local community schools. The Department for Education has approved four new Free Schools, without any consultation with the community.

Waltham Forest Council is working on a better solution to the future shortage of secondary school places by expanding our excellent existing schools.

It’s not too late to stop the Free Schools by showing our support for our schools and our Council.

We need everyone who is concerned about these Free Schools and everyone who supports our excellent local schools to sign our petition and circulate it as far and as wide as possible in our borough.

*Please add your name to our petition online here:*

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/support-waltham-forests-local-community-schools.html

Download our new leaflet and hard copy petition here

Read more about this campaign here.