| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:In the news today ... | |
| Posted by: | Toby Young | |
| Date/Time: | 10/07/10 23:13:00 |
| Iain, I'm afraid your mistaken in almost every particular. I was not privately educated. I went to two comprehensives and a grammar school. I would still like the West London Free School to be a "comprehensive grammar". Not my "laughable" idea. The Labour Party's. I quote from a 1964 Labour election leaflet: "Comprehensive education does not mean that the virtues of the grammar school are destroyed. They will be extended to a wider group of children whose talents will be enriched by the higher standards created for all by the comprehensive system." (You can read chapter and verse on this here http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100038176/free-schools-is-a-comprehensive-grammar-a-contradiction-in-terms/) The idea is and always has been for the West London Free School to be an Academy. Our school won't have "slightly dodgy admissions criteria". Bit odd, that one, considering we haven't got a set of admissions criteria and won't have one until we've consulted with the local authority, the Department for Education, et al. But rest assured that whatever criteria we adopt they won't be "dodgy". On the contrary, they will be compatible with the School Admissions Code, i.e., fully inclusive. Far from favouring middle class applicants, I don't even know that my own children will get in. We may subcontract the day-to-day operation of the school to a commercial education provider. Then again, we may not. Plenty of commercial companies provide services to both the DfE and the Children's Services Departments of local authorities -- Serco, VT, Nord Anglia, EdisonLearning, Tribal, Capita -- so absolutely nothing new there (if we decide to do it). We'll choose the service provider we think can deliver the best education for the children at the school, whether a commercial company or a charity. We couldn't legally open the school in premises which don't meet the "legs and regs", as they're described in the Department. There is no programme called Building for Schools. Money saved from discontinuing the Building Schools for the Future programme will not be diverted to Free Schools. The New Schools Network is a non-partisan charity. It includes two senior advisers to Tony Blair among its advisors. (See here http://www.newschoolsnetwork.org/about-us/team) Iain, you've created a straw man to rage against. If everything you believe is true of the West London Free School was true I would be opposed to it too. But it isn't. Please take the trouble to inform yourself of the facts before weighing in again. |