Free School seen as flagship by PM
The Prime Minister toured Norwich’s Free School this morning, citing it as a model: “We want to provide what parents want: a very good education, slightly smaller class sizes and wrap-around care.”
Costing 1/6th of a normal new primary school, he added it was good value for money and would “drive up standards for children in this school and in schools across Norwich.”
Photos: Steve Adams.
The Free School Norwich is one of 24 which opened this week. Norwich’s example is being seen as a flagship by the Department of Education, offering affordable, wrap-around childcare, 51 weeks of the year for working parents. Local MP Simon Wright said: “It’s a clear signal that Norwich is doing something innovative and exciting, creating a model for other schools.”
Both David Cameron, and the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, met pupils at the new school on Surrey Street. In a speech to an invited audience local teachers, businessmen and parents, the Prime Minister spoke about their “free schools revolution”: “We’ve said to charities, to faith groups, to businesses, to community organisations, teachers: come in and set up a great new school, in the state sector. And the response has been overwhelming. 24, including this one, opening the September. More than two hundred applications for next year.”
Facing critics who say the government needs to make existing schools better, he answered: “Free schools don’t just give parents who are frustrated with their local schools a new chance of a better education. They also encourage existing schools in the area to compete and raise their game[...] Those opposing free schools are simply defending the establishment – an establishment that has failed pupils and infuriated parents for too long.”
Asked how many Free Schools he expected to see, David Cameron said: “The answer depends on what parents, teachers and pupils want. If there’s a demand… it’ll be the parents who decide if there are more.”
One working parent, whose daughter started this week said her local school offered no after-school childcare, which is why she chose the Free School.
On wider education reform, the Prime Minister said: “Discipline works. Rigour works. Freedom for schools works. Having high expectations works[...]We need parents to have a real stake in the discipline of their children, to face real consequences if their children continually misbehave.” On exams he said: ”Rigorous subjects, tested in a rigorous way[...] our curriculum review will mean we are really demanding in what we expect our children to learn.”
Among the reforms, as well as Free Schools, the government is bringing in University Technical Colleges (which City College is currently applying for) and Studio Schools (which the Hewett School is hoping to set up). But teachers in the audience, who asked not to be named, raised concerns about the sweeping changes. While supportive of the Free School, on wider education reform, they felt some schools could be branded failures too quickly.
To read the PM’s speech in more detail, see our Features section.
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