The government recently announced that it their drive to help ‘Free’ schools open they make empty government buildings available.
Of course many people were worried that government buildings may not be suitable for schools – how many of them have playgrounds and science labs we wonder?
The government have now released an initial list of available buildings, with more to follow. There are 6 buildings on the list, which is slightly short of the 100 new ‘free’ schools they propose to open.
The list includes Balham Youth Court, 3 Magistrates Courts and 2 Department for Education offices (presumably no longer needed).
So if any of you are preparing a ‘free’ school bid, and you want to set a nice disciplined tone, put in a bid for your local court!
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This is similar to what happened with Toby Young’s school. It was originally meant to be in Acton where there was a demand, but the council ended up turfing about 17 charities out of a building in central Hammersmith where there wasn’t a shortage of places.
Unfortunately, despite this list, it seems to be very difficult to find out where it is that Katharine Birbalsingh is planning her school in Tooting. It seems that it might not be in the Balham Youth Court, although that would be appropriate!
The fact that she is planning to move to Tooting, having been run out of Lambeth, just illustrates that Gove is desperate and that parental demand for places has nothing to do with his ‘free’ school policy. There is no demand for the school in Tooting.