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Free schools

• A free school in England is a type of academy a non-profit state funded school which is free to attend free schools are not controlled by a local authority but rather by non-profit charitable trust. Between 2010 and 2015 more than 400 free schools were approved for opening in England by the coalition government.

What is a trust?

• In order to set up a free school founding groups must submit applications to the department of education. Groups which can set up free schools are very diverse and include those run by parents, education charities and religious groups.

Pros and cons

• Pros
• create more local competition so drive up standards
• allow parents more choice in type of education their child receives
• Claimed it benefits children from all backgrounds
• Cons
• benefit primarily from middle class parents with time to set them up which fuels social segregation
• divert money away from existing schools as there is a set amount of money in education budget
• Are not actually and have created surplus in school places. Half of free schools opened in 2012 opened with 60% less than expected student numbers
• "Trojan horse" of religious extremism
• In 2014 free schools were three times as likely to be graded as inadequate as average state schools
• teachers at free schools did not need to be qualified
• Teachers unions were against free schools

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