Do free schools really have more ‘freedom’?

Unhindered by the ‘interference’ of local authorities, free schools are intended to be beacons of innovative practice, but are they really that different? Liz Lightfoot investigates...

At Wix Primary in London children are taught in French and English, while across the capital Highgate primary has introduced Mandarin and philosophy to its curriculum. Exning village Primary in Suffolk offers wraparound care and Middlestone Moor in Durham has developed a creative, topic-based curriculum.

You might expect these to be free schools, the new state-funded independent institutions brought in by the government to raise standards through innovation, free from the “dead-hand” of local authority control. But they are not.

These are all local authority, community schools, which begs the question, if all state schools can vary their curriculum, change their hours and introduce new subjects, what’s different about free schools?

It’s a key point. The creation of free schools and academies has been at the heart of Conservative education policy since the Academies Act 2010. There are now around 250 free schools, with another 112 pending. They are ‘free’ in that they do not have to stick to the national curriculum or the national rates for teachers’ pay and can set their own hours and term times. They are also free, like independent schools, to employ non-qualified teachers.

What they are not free from, however, are inspections by Ofsted and the need to put children in for national curriculum tests and public examinations. And it appears that most, aware of the accountability framework, are playing safe, sticking to the national curriculum but perhaps reorganising it into topics or themes and introducing a few new subjects – all of which any primary school is free to do. Some free schools, usually those started by senior schools or special interest groups, have a distinctive mission, such as the Europa School in Oxford, Cathedral Primary started by Bristol Cathedral Choir School and those sponsored by Muslim, Sikh and Hindu communities.

Others have opened in response to parental demand because of an urgent need for more primary places. Since free schools were introduced, the Government has not allowed local authorities to build or open their own new schools. In response, councils are teaming up with local parents and interest groups – Hertfordshire County Council, for example, has played a major role in the opening of Alban City, a free school in the centre of St Albans.

Rules & regulations

So what’s so innovative about free schools? A survey by the Department for Education last October found the most used freedoms were running an extended day (57 per cent of free schools) and operating term times different to surrounding schools (41 per cent). Yet the study notes that some academies and free schools were already running an extended day before conversion.

Free schools can set their own criteria for admissions, yet they must follow the government’s school admissions code. The survey found a significant minority used lotteries for at least some of their places. They are also likely to give priority to the children of founders. Beyond that, the most common criteria were similar to those of local authority schools – catchment area and giving priority to disadvantaged pupils. Just under a third of free schools said they had employed non-qualified teachers, and half of those that had done so reported that they no longer had any, either because they had left or qualified.

More than half (57 per cent) of primary and secondary free schools said they had set their own pay and conditions for staff. However, the 2013 school workforce survey showed similar average salaries. The average for full-time qualified teachers in local authority nursery and primary schools was £36,600 compared with £35,800 in equivalent academy and free schools. The average leadership team rates were also similar – £52,400 in local authority schools compared to £53,000 in free schools and academies.

At Alban City School – where places are vastly over-subscribed – headteacher Janet Goddard says the governors made a decision early on to employ only qualified staff, paid according to national rates. The school, like many others nowadays, opens early for breakfast at 7.30am and offers after-school sessions until 6pm. “The main difference between a free school and a community school is that we don’t have to follow the national curriculum,” says Janet. “But children still need to take SAT tests in Year 2 and 6, and if you deviate hugely from the expectations of the national curriculum your children would not have success. What we have done is taken all the skills from the national curriculum so children cover them, but in a broader, thematic curriculum.”

Of course there is nothing to stop local authority schools doing the same. “What we have done which is different, and which has been a big success, is to introduce a 20-minute soft session before school starts in the morning when parents and carers can join children in the classroom,” she says. “The teachers and teaching assistants are present so it’s easy for parents to raise anything that might be worrying them.”

Continental drift

At the Europa Free school near Abingdon in Oxfordshire, the children are taught in either French or German for half the week from the age of four, so they tend to reach the goals of the national curriculum at a slower rate. “Our children do the KS1 and KS2 tests and because the KS1 tests come early on there is a lot of pressure on staff to get them prepared, especially if they are still struggling to master the second language,” says Principal Peter Ashbourne. “Perhaps the biggest benefit to us of being a free school is that we are able to keep the European ethos of the school by employing qualified teachers from other countries without the need for them to go through the bureaucratic process of gaining QTS status in the UK.”

One of the most innovative free schools is the Marine Academy Primary in Plymouth, where the curriculum is built around the nautical heritage of the city. Now in its second year, it was opened by the existing Marine Academy and has strong links with sponsors Plymouth University and Cornwall College. Plymouth City Council is also a sponsor. Siobhan Easton, its assistant headteacher, says being a free school does not make a difference to the pay and conditions of the teachers but it has helped inspire them to work hard on curriculum innovation. “Plymouth being the Ocean City does mean that we are immersed in a great deal of marine culture, however, not many schools incorporate this into their learning,” she says. “We haven’t altered or strayed far from the new national curriculum, but have tweaked it in places, for example, we have started languages from KS1 and not KS2. I would say that being an all-through campus from nursery to sixth form and with links to a local university and college is a major benefit.”

In a foreword to the Department for Education research report on free schools last October education secretary Nicky Morgan said 71 per cent of free schools had been graded either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted. So a further 29 per cent were judged to be inadequate or requiring improvement, suggesting that innovation does not always win over tried and tested methods.

Think different

Some key stats from the DfE’s findings in free school innovations…

80%

The subject which most free schools said they are likely to follow the new national curriculum to a great extent was mathematics, with 80 per cent of respondents saying they would.

78%

English was a close second on 78 per cent, with science third on 66 per cent). These figures for free schools are similar to those reported by academies.

57%

Fifty-seven per cent of free schools claim that they offer subjects not available in local schools.

¾

Just over three quarters of free schools reported linking pay to teachers’ performance.

47%

Almost half of the free schools felt they offered something innovative which is different to other schools. The curriculum (mentioned by 49 per cent) and the style of teaching (37 per cent) were the most common areas.