Letter: Education proposal is unrealistic and bonkers
At the very, very least it should read ‘Over-ambitious’, ‘unrealistic’, ‘undemocratic’, or ‘bonkers’. Who do they think they are: this consortium?
This new establishment is one of three such free schools planned for Doncaster, North Lincolnshire and Leeds, so no given local knowledge then.
Originally the plan was for a 3 to 19-aged school, but DfE has only approved the establishment as a secondary school, so whatever the previous philosophy had been, it will be no longer.
The spokeswoman claims that “Our Alternative Provision Free School will...seek to reengage our most challenging and vulnerable students between the ages of 3 and 19...”
Did no one tell her that wasn’t going to happen?
Free schools are, but have no right to be, state-funded. If someone has a genuine alternative educational policy, by all means let them set one up, and for those parents who understand the score.
But not at our expense, not in competition with and at the expense of increasingly cash-strapped local schools and their supportive local authority.
The headline says this school is “backed by ministers”. Of course it is. Trashing local education authorities is the name of the Gove game.
Victoria Jaquiss FRSA, Leeds 6
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