Interest grows in Norwich Free School
Progress on what could be one of the country’s first free schools is gathering pace. A building has been secured, a Governing Body is in place and dozens of parents have expressed an interest. At the heart of the idea behind Norwich Free School is affordable childcare - a key issue for many parents.
Last month the Government gave permission for a group in Norwich to put together a business plan to create a free school. Since then, there’s been a surge of interest from parents wanting to find out more.
Tanya Sidney-Roberts is the teacher who first came up with the idea 15 years ago, but has been waiting for the opportunity to set up such a school. A working mother herself, she struggled to find workable childcare arrangements when her son started school, especially during the summer holidays. In response to this, Norwich Free School will offer a 4 week summer holiday, and 6 week terms. Part of the package they’re putting to the Government will include flexible childcare before and after school: “When we surveyed parents, 100% said , wow, this is exactly what we need, we’d love a place.”
Norwich Free School say they’ll tackle the issue of finding good, affordable childcare by being open 51 weeks of the year, for the extended school day. One parent contacted them, saying as a single Dad with 2 children, he’d just spent over £900 on childcare over the summer holidays, which was as much as he was earning: “What we’re doing will create jobs and enable an awful lot of parents to go out to work. We will run it at cost charge to parents, so we will make sure it’s affordable.”
Enquiries about the school are coming in daily, with around 150 parents already requesting a prospectus. If approved by the Government, Norwich Free School will open next September to 120 children of primary school age. An open evening for all interested parents is being planned, details of which should be available within the next 2 weeks. By then they hope to release the location of the planned school.
The idea of free schools is stirring up controversy. Radio 4′s Today programme highlighted some of the concerns. Some critics warn free schools will take the brightest pupils, leaving other schools to cope with less able ones. Local councillor, Adrian Ramsay (Green, Nelson) wrote an Opinion piece for South Norwich News, arguing free schools ”represent a threat to the principle of free state education.”
There are also concerns about the knock-on effect such a school will have on other Norwich primaries. But Tania Sidney-Roberts defends their plans: “It will be a very small school, with 120 pupils. That’s the typical size of a village primary in Norfolk. We’ll also be drawing from a broader area than just Norwich. It’s not going to have a significant impact on any school in the city. We’ve been in contact with local schools and so far the response has been very positive.”
This view is backed up by Norfolk County Council, who’ve been working closely with Norwich Free School. A spokesperson for the county council said: ”There are growing pupil numbers in the primary sector and the free school is interested in drawing children from a wide area. We think, therefore, that it will have only a marginal impact on individual schools.”
Comments to “Interest grows in Norwich Free School”
This is a glorified babysitting initiatve then.
“Wow , I’d love free childcare from 7:30 am until 18:00 pm , sign me up ! “
What strikes me is why people would want to work in a school like this? Perhaps they’re just teachers that other schools don’t want sticking together?
Totally against this when schools are losing money…how can the government justify this?
It’s so sad to see that people are prepared to just slag off everything new without even giving it a chance. Who is to say which system is the best? Are the parents opting for this school not taxpayers also? Or do you think that taxes are just the privilege of people whose children attend “mainstream” schools?
What is so ironic is that one of the teachers at this ‘Free’ school is the reason why my son is now at an independent school! Good luck to them.
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I’m anticipating protests at the school gates come September. A lot of people in Norwich have expressed the view that it’s a disgrace for State funds to be spent in this way at a time of excruciating cuts.