Free Schools - What do you know / What are your thoughts?

[Tealady]

By 2014 our area (a suburb of a large town) will need 60 additional school places annually

Our LA's answer is to have a Bulge year in two of the local six/seven primary schools on a rotation basis. The part of this area I live in is very middle class. Two of the schools have an intake from an area of social housing. Suffice to say most of the parents from our part do not want their children attending these two schools. Also the most of the children in the middle class bit cannot walk to their catchment schools as they are too far for little legs.

The issues have been brewing for a few years. My DD goes to a school 4.5 miles away in the next county (she is in year 2) as our catchment schools were over subscribed.

So this year it has come to a bit of a head. Some parents are in the process of trying to set up a Free school and want to have it ready for 2014. In my opinion if there is consistantly an excess of children to fill two classes a year then the LA should be looking to set up a new school or extend one of the current ones properly. I feel uneasy about Free schools, but feel my opinions may be rather narrow minded as I really don't know too much about them. This potential new school has set up a website but apart from saying how wonderful they think it will be they don't give much other info. My son is due to start school on 2014 so it could be an interesting time.

What are your thoughts on Free Schools / Has anyone had any involvement in Free Schools?

[sarah707]

I have 2 children coming to the end of their school / education - 1 at uni and 1 doing A levels.

I certainly could not have given them the knowledge they needed through their school lives to pass the exams they have taken to get them to this point... I could have home schooled them no problem and I nearly did with ds but I eventually decided that he also needed people with more skills around him for subjects I just don't know enough about like maths and sciences.

Free schools worry me because they don't have to cover the curriculum - which means that the children might not have enough knowledge to pass the exams they need to take them on to higher education...

I can see this new initiative causing a lot of problems in the future as the children leave school with excellent skills etc but a lack of real qualifications - then what happens when they want to get a job and have nothing to put on their CV??

Yes it worries me too x

[eddie]

[QUOTE=sarah707;1185538

Free schools worry me because they don't have to cover the curriculum - which means that the children might not have enough knowledge to pass the exams they need to take them on to higher education...

I can see this new initiative causing a lot of problems in the future as the children leave school with excellent skills etc but a lack of real qualifications - then what happens when they want to get a job and have nothing to put on their CV??

Yes it worries me too x[/QUOTE]

I confess to not knowing much about free schools but in an ideal world children leaving these schools who were maybe better equipped to deal with life would be of greater benefit to society and industry than some of the ones coming out of conventional schools armed with 12 A stars and no common sense. However it is convincing employers of this which could be the problem.

My son goes to an academy type school where although the follow the curriculum they are taught other skills to make them ready for the outside world and I think it is these skills which will be of more use to him than an English gcse.

If I had a younger child I would want to find out a lot more such as models from abroad and any educational reports done. Both of mine are already in the secondary system. It's becoming such a hard choice for parents t know what to do for the best.