55 new ‘Free’ schools announced

The Govement has announced the opening of 55 new ‘Free’ schools in 2012. The list is below.

We will analyse the list, now it has finally been released.

There were 281 ‘Free’ school applications, of which only 55 were considered suitable to be allowed to open. It would be interesting to see the rest.

The New Schools Network, the so-called charity that is closely linked to Gove, has complained that “The DfE has been over cautious”.

The list includes the Michaela ‘Free’ school, which is led by Katherine Birbalsingh, who is famous for condemning teachers at the Tory Conference in 2010.

The first 24 ‘Free’ schools to open cost £130 million. How much more will be spent getting these 55 ready? ‘Free’ schools are paid for by the tax payer, yet we have no say over them.

Click here for more on the first 24 ‘Free’ schools

While Michael Gove is enthusiastically copying ‘Free’ schools from the Swedish education system, educationalists and politicians in Sweden are coming to terms with the damage that ‘Free’ schools have done.

In a recent report SNS, a prominent Swedish business funded thinktank, expressed deep concerns about the impact of allowing for-profit suppliers to run Swedish schools. Also ‘Free’ schools are being accused of deeping segregation. See more in this Guardian report

List below taken from the DfE website here