Guest blog by Anonymous
It all
started innocently enough. Jim Gatten and Maria Evans, a mum and dad from
Barnet, decided to set up a new parent-led secondary school which they hoped
the community would embrace. They applied to become a free school, a school
independent of the local authority and accountable only to and funded directly
by the Department for Education (DfE). They advertised for other parents and
members of the community to join them in gathering enough signatures to show
the DfE that it would be full for the first 2 years after opening, a box
ticking exercise the DfE puts hopeful free school founders through. Off they
went with their clipboards to various primary school gates gathering
signatures. They got the required minimum of 250 signatures necessary for their
free school application but there was never a groundswell of local support.
Many parents who signed simply thought that a new school sounds like a good
idea, after all, these are parents setting up a school and just need a simple
no-obligation signature. No explanation was given as to the implications a free
school has on the local communities and it was 2013, before the flurry of
headlines of failing and undersubscribed free schools had hit the press.
Gladstone
Free School was born in May 2013 on approval from the DfE and then things got
messy. Gladstone immediately tried to secure the playing fields of Gladstone
Park for their school building, arguing that they were simply returning a
school to the site of the long closed William Gladstone School. Of course, what
they failed to appreciate is that the site of William Gladstone School has
since been built upon and is now a well-established housing estate. The land
where they proposed to build is genuine community open space containing the top
pitch for the Kilburn Cosmos (Brent’s only Rugby club) and allotments.
Inconveniently for them, it is dedicated metropolitan open land which gives it
a whole host of protections. Their naivety shined at the now infamous
consultation meeting at The Crown when they tried to sell the project to the
community. Neighbours, Rugby players, concerned educationalists and more turned
up and packed the meeting room alongside a handful of confused prospective
Gladstone Free School families. It was clear that building on the open space
was a non-starter with the community but Gladstone Free School soldiered on for
some time, in search of a possible community benefit of building a
non-community school on a park. Eventually, the clock ran out for opening in
2014 and they had to postpone their opening by a year in order to look for a
more suitable site.
The
Gladstone School Trust (the “charity” behind Gladstone Free School) had to take
into account the feelings of the community during their public consultation,
hundreds had responded to the consultation in hopes that the free school would
not build on the open space. Whilst the community waited and asked questions of
the free school, Gladstone Free School responded by deleting their Twitter
accounts and removing a number of pages from their website making reference to
their proposal to build on the park. The community was clearly not welcome to
question or engage with the school and all who asked questions were labelled
“detractors”. After much pressure, the trust finally published version 3 of the
consultation document, versions 1 and 2 have yet to be seen by the public. The
consultation document showed an overwhelmingly negative response from the
community and very little support, yet the Gladstone School Trust decided that
those opposed to the site could still be supportive of the school in principle,
therefore, they should build the school but not in the park.
Enter
Paul Phillips, Principal Designate of Gladstone Free School who responded to
the school’s pompous advertisement for a principal describing the school as
“fostering the mind-set and confidence more privileged children possess from
birth”. The job advertised a £95K+ salary which Paul has enjoyed since 1/1/2014
and has yet to educate a single child, much less one who doesn’t possess the
mind-set and confidence of a more privileged child. So where did Mr. Phillips
come from and what did Gladstone Free School mean by an “entrepreneurial board
of governors” in the job advert?
Shockingly,
Paul Phillips is credited with co-writing the first draft of the school’s
behaviour policy on 29/11/2013, over a month before starting the job. According
to his LinkedIn, Paul Phillips also works for AET in curriculum development and
has done so throughout the entirety of his employment at Gladstone Free School.
AET has been barred by the DfE from taking on more free schools and academies
as their record is so poor.
There
is something unusual about the founders’ determination to open a new school. It
doesn’t make sense. A couple from Barnet who live in walking distance of both
Whitefield School and Hampstead School, both rated “good” by Ofsted and both
recently inspected under the newer, and tougher, Ofsted criteria. Whitefield
School has an abundance of unfilled places and they live well within the
catchment of Hampstead School.
So,
why would these Barnet parents want to set up a school in Brent, miles from
their family home, and put in such a tremendous effort fighting the community
all the while? The answer may lie in the self-described “entrepreneurial board
of governors”. In 2013 Gladstone School spent £73K on “charitable expenses”.
What could these expenses be as they weren’t yet paying any employees. The
application to the DfE included using the Do It Write! curriculum written by
Jim Gatten, founding father of Gladstone Free School. This was only abandoned
and deemed a conflict of interest by The Gladstone School Trust when it was
exposed in Wembley Matters LINK
The
Behaviour Policy of Gladstone School may hold another clue. LINK
Writing school policies is a core function of every school governing body.
Gladstone has outsourced their most recent edit to HeadLine Communications, a
company which lists Maria Evans as the director. So how much did Gladstone Free
School pay their own chair of governors for the small edits to the behaviour
policy?
In
recent weeks, Gladstone School has announced a site within 500 metres of
Neasden Underground station which is a known pollution hotspot. They won’t tell
anyone the exact site, blaming the DfE for the need to keep things quiet. LINK
In
spite of their 250 signatures needed to apply to start a free school, Gladstone
has received less than 120 applications for September 2015 and they won’t share
the number with the community. As every child who applied was offered a place
and there are still places available, we know they haven’t reached their target
number. In a desperate attempt to get more parents to sign up, Paul Phillips
has been emailing supporters asking them to become ambassadors for the school
and encourage their friends to apply as they “are at risk of not having the
minimum numbers necessary to open the school”. As Gladstone is handling its own
admissions for the first year and an application to them has been advertised as
an “extra choice”, they should be very concerned about the low volume of
applications. Many families who apply to free schools simply don’t turn up in
September as they receive offers from established schools through the normal
application process.
I
close with a quote from William Gladstone who is listed as one of the
inspirations behind the school. The school has been so inspired by him that
they have taken the liberty of creating a fictitious Facebook account using his
name. I do hope the founders of Gladstone Free School take a long, hard look at
themselves and then abandon their plans for this school:
"Nothing
that is morally wrong can be politically right."
16 comments:
I have sent a link to this guest blog to Brent MP's Sarah Teather and Barry Gardiner, asking them to bring it to the attention of Nicky Morgan (Secretary of State for Education), and that she should ensure that her Department investigates these allegations as a matter of urgency.
Philip Grant.
Another name that is on the Behaviour Policy is Ray Watson. He's the chap who was at the meeting at The Crown, playing the role of DfE consultant. So the same man who was involved with writing Gladstone's policies is also the independent consultant and compiled the consultation document?
How many conflicts of interest does this group have?
At total rethink of the commissioning of new schools is required immediately after May elections assuming coalition are given the boot.
The market system clearly demonstrated failure as it is more complex physically commission a public services, such as a school than simply demonstrating parent demand.
A huge amount of planning is required across a multitude of stakeholders including land owners, transport, education, teachers, parents, learners local people etc
It is easy to show parent demand when parents want the best for Darling Son or Daughter, but it is another reaching agreement on best location and who should manage the school.
The experiment has not worked and needs immediate review.
Breaking News
Head of private Gower primary in Kingsbury has been found guilty of assaulting a 10 year old boy.
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/private-school-head-admits-assaulting-boy-10-in-classroom-10069111.html
This is happening on Christine Gilberts watch and people have been warning the cuts have gone far enough.
How many more of these incidents will start to surface ?
This might start to
From the behaviour policy "Gladstone School is committed to creating an environment where exemplary behaviour is at the heart of productive learning. Everyone is expected to maintain the highest standards of personal conduct, to accept responsibility for their behaviour and encourage others to do the same."
Shall we encourage them to behave responsibly?
Here, here!
Absurd! I know very little about free schools but can't Brent stop this? I have a child in year 6 and know of 2 people who applied for this school who have no intention of sending their child to Gladstone School. They applied just in case they got none of their other choices.
I'm emailing them this story as I'm certain they have no idea it's anything other than a free extra choice.
I've just emailed to ask my child's name be removed from their list.
I thought something wasn't quite right when I was asked to get as many friends to sign up even if they will attend another school.
An email from Jim saying there are many detractors was odd but makes sense now.
I'm very uneasy about them now
This group are both arrogant and untrustworthy. They called all the other local schools "exam factories". As someone with first hand knowledge of our great local schools, I take that as an ignorant insult.
There are red flags all over this group and it started virtually from the beginning.
What any parent considering this school has to ask themselves, why have eight members of the Trust resigned in the last two years. This sets off major alarm bells and the fact that local business’ such as the Moran’s have quit their support speaks volumes, Tommy Moran resigned after only 11 months.
I also find it very misleading that Gladstone still list Professor Neelands as a governor on their website, he resigned from the Trust in April 2014.
Eight Director’s resignations within two years of a proposed school that has not even been fully approved is most alarming. The DfE should surely be questioning this?
I would be very worried if I had put this school on the list.
It is March in a few hours. If they don't have a building by now either they will open in a building not suitable as a school or they will not open at all.
It is just high risk particularly if you put this school as your first choice.
Given placements will be due out very soon it would be better to remove completely if this school is your first choice. It is possible you will miss out on your second choice if you do nothing.
One for Trading Standards to investigate misleading parents with names of education professionals when they have obviously resigned and are no longer associated the marketing.
When Michaela Community School offered places some were made to children whose parents had not even listed it as a choice so even those parents with the sense to only choose existing/established schools should be worried. The DfE will stop at nothing to try and fill unwanted and unneeded free schools.
The DfE have addressed this problem by allowing site-less free schools to handle their own admissions for the first year.
Students apply to their local authority as usual but then may seperately apply for a new free school. On offer day, students will receive an offer letter from their local authority and an offer letter from any site-less free schools to which they applied.
Students can then accept both offers as the free school offer is contingent on securing a site. Established schools don't know which, if any, of their applicants have applied for site-less free schools so it is a mess for real school as X number might not turn up on the first day and the places won't be put back into the pan-London system until quite late.
I do hope Gladstone and other free schools make it very clear to parents/carers that they must also apply to established schools.
Do not bet on it.
Gladstone Free School and all other Free School have to show " Market Demand"
To get "Market Demand" they are more than likely not to advise parents there is a high chance the school will not open.
Any ideas about the open of the other 2 Free Schools in Brent ?
The Gateway Academy seems dead in the water and Gladstone has announced today it will defer yet again and apply to open in 2016.
With Head Teachers and staff being paid to not work at schools I would estimate a good £400,00 has been spent on the non-openings. What could that have been spent on at our existing schools............ the list is endless.
When will the government put an end to this hideous, non-sensical and wasteful experiment.
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