Brent Labour Council backs new free schools for rising secondary population

The report on school places planning  to be discussed at Monday's Cabinet Meeting goes further than hitherto in backing the provision of new free schools to provide for the rising secondary school population, which is now working its way through from the primary sector. LINK

This is partly because, due to academisation, there are now no  local authority secondary schools left in the borough.  The report acknowledges the risks attached, although more risks would have been taken into account if they had looked at experience outside of Brent. LINK

The recommendation is in conflict with the direction of national Labour policy under the Corbyn leadership which is critical of free schools as the first step in a move towards schools for private profit.

The problems with the Council's approach are clear in these two consecutive paragraphs in the report:

There is a however a risk to the Council in making assumptions on the delivery of school places through proposed free school developments. The Gladstone Secondary Free School has been approved to open in Brent, but the proposal has been delayed, until at least 2017, due to the inability of EFA to find a suitable site. If this proposal is not delivered, or there are delays in provision, the Council will have a statutory duty to provide and fund the required school places. This risk is reduced if the Council is pro-active in seeking proposers for new schools and working with the EFA to identify potential sites for new schools. The EFA is able to purchase commercial sites for Free Schools. 


Given the level of the need for places in the secondary phase and the high costs of expansion; new Free Schools are therefore recommended as the preferred option to meet the projected increase in demand for secondary places. 


The section on primary expansion also looks to free schools alongside expansions of local authority schools.  Most primaries remain local authority schools although Sudbury Primary voluntarily academised some time ago and there will be a battle over Oakington Manor and Furness academisation plans. 

Floreat Primary Free School is due to open on a temporary site in 2017 while Ark Somerville Primary has no site as yet. Brent Council will be looking for a free school sponsor for a new school in Oriental City/Edgware Road. Michaela secondary Free School does not seem to have followed through its primary school plans.

However it is the expansion of local authority primary schools into much larger units that remains the core of Brent Council policy and the report recommends what amounts to a loosening of Principle 1 for school expansion. Hitherto only Ofsted rated 'Good' or 'Outstanding' primary schools were recommended for expansion.  As can be seen this has been changed to enable more schools to expand. Such a policy has a risk attached because expansion has a number of risks, including the disturbance to the learning environment caused by building works, changes in school ethos as a result of much larger number of pupils, and an increase in pupil mobility disrupting educational progress. School leadership has to be strong to cope in such circumstances.

Despite recent parental opposition to very large primary schools, the policy retains 5 form entry schools as an aim. This is 1,050 4-11 year olds in a school. The DfE has recently got wise to the fact that some local authority school expansions using an additional site are de facto new schools and this is recognised in revised Principle 3.

As someone who values small family-centred child-friendly primary schools and is opposed to free schools, so ripe for financial mismanagement, I find this all rather disheartening. What is disturbing is that the changes haven't really been debated. Parents and school staff have had little or no voice on policies that will have a profound impact on the quality of education in the borough.

What about the children?