Toby Young: 'Free school movement should be all about mavericks like me'

The journalist and author tells Richard Garner why he chose to open a school – and why Michael Gove doesn't want others to follow his lead

News in pictures
News in pictures
On Facebook
From the blogs

Disclosure: We’d never even been to a club when we made our first single

For most of us, reaching eighteen years of age opens up a new world for exploration, spontaneity and...

Sepp Blatter: Penalty shoot-outs must remain, they’re football’s great leveller

As England supporters, we should scorn at any such deciding factor within football. On so many occas...

Why do some men consider the street as a female meat market?

Pronouncements on sexual inequality in the UK are normally met with an eye roll by my generation. As...

Political corruption reflects the widening chasm between the political class and the electorate

The corruption and hypocrisy which has come to characterise politics and politicians, and in particu...

Free school pioneer Toby Young today claims the Coalition Government is making it harder for parents to set up and run their own schools as part of its flagship scheme. The journalist and author will see his labours come to fruition this morning as his West London free school opens its doors to pupils for the first time.

However, in an interview with The Independent, he warns that the path to setting up a free school might not be so easy for parents in future. This is because ministers have tightened up the rules – making it almost essential that any potential bidder will need the support of professional educational consultants to plot a way through the bureaucracy,

As a result, parents have turned to academy sponsors such as E-ACT and ARK, the charity set up by hedge fund entrepreneur Arpad Busson, with the result that they end up running the school.

"I think this is a shame," Young said. "I think one of the virtues of the free school policy is that it involves parents in the ongoing life of the school. All the research suggests the more involved they are in their children's education the better the children do.

"ARK, E-ACT and the Harris Foundation are all good at running schools, but at the end of the day the free-school movement should be about mavericks like us setting up an innovative school rather than academy sponsors setting up a chain of 13 schools that are one of a kind."

Young, whose school in Hammersmith, west London, will take 120 first-year secondary school students, said he was not sure whether he would have been successful if he had waited a year to go ahead. "I wanted to be the first to get a funding agreement," he said. "My wife thought it was just down to my competitive instincts but I really thought that – by being first – we would have a better chance."

He said he could see why the new procedures had been brought in.

"The last thing Michael Gove (the Education Secretary) wants is a high- profile free school collapse on his hands," he said. "However, the indirect consequence of the tightening up of the previous process is that it is going to be much easier for the multi-academy sponsors to set up two schools than forgroups like mine."

He revealed that his group had been involved in discussions with groups like CfBT and ARK to see if they could help with the running of the school but – in the end – had decided to go it alone. "We wanted the school to have a particular individual character," he said.

Today's opening marks the culmination of two years of planning. The school will insist its students all study six subjects to GCSE level — English language, English literature, one science, maths, either Latin or a modern foreign language and history. The diet is similar to the new English Baccalaureate promoted by the Government, but will not insist on two sciences.

The school will build to full capacity over five years but has already created great interest from parents, with 500 applying for its 120 places. Under its admissions procedure, half the places are allocated by proximity to the school and the rest by lottery.

Young acknowledges that the school probably has fewer children on free school meals than the average for the neighbourhood but more than the national average. "We want our pupils to be a genuinely diverse group reflecting the social and ethnic mix of the neighbourhood," he said. "We haven't achieved that yet but we hope to achieve it in the next couple of years."

He argues that only if they are truly reflective will they be able to tell whether they have achieved better results through their approach.

The project is probably the one among all the 24 free schools opening this term that has attracted the most controversy – possibly because it has been more in the spotlight through its pioneer's substantial and sometimes abrasive media presence.

However, he says he has established good relations with neighbouring schools and the local authority. The council found him the temporary site the school now occupies (it was formerly a special school) and has arranged for it to move to larger premises in a couple of years. The former head of London Oratory – one of the neighbouring schools, has put his weight behind the project.

"Believe it or not," he says with a slightly quizzically raised eyebrow, "I have been fairly diplomatic in dealing with the local authority and neighbouring schools."

The school acknowledges it will be a long five-year wait until the first students sit their GCSEs to see whether the experiment has succeeded.

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
Career Services

Day In a Page

Is Ridley Scott the most macho man in movies?

Ridley Scott: The most macho man in movies?

His cinematic CV is unparalleled. Yet the Alien director is still obsessed with beating his rivals.
Being Gary Lineker: The clean-cut anchorman is this summer's Mr Sport

Being Gary Lineker

The clean-cut anchorman is this summer's Mr Sport...
Gallic gourmets are putting French cuisine back on the culinary map

Gallic gourmets put France back on culinary map

Overdone, out of touch and old-fashioned: French cuisine has never been at a lower ebb...
So Moorish: Mark Hix offers his own take on classic Moroccan dishes

So Moorish: Mark Hix's Moroccan dishes

Why not create a north African-inspired feast to share with your friends?
Sin and the single mother: The history of lone parenthood

Sin and the single mother

Maureen Paton explores the history of lone parenthood.
The outsider: Margaret Howell is British fashion's queen of minimalism

The outsider: Margaret Howell

The designer tells Susannah Frankel why she has never felt part of the fashion industry.
The 50 Best luggage

The 50 Best luggage

From chic cases to compact baggage, pack it all in this summer
For men only: A pilgrimage to Mount Athos in Greece

For men only: A pilgrimage to Mount Athos

On a secluded peninsula in north-east Greece lies an enclave that's way off the tourist map, especially for women...
48 Hours In: Faro

48 Hours In: Faro

More than just the gateway to the Algarve, this city has much to tempt you off the beach.
Here, the coast is always clear: Celebrating sixty years of Pembrokeshire's National Park

60 years of Pembrokeshire's National Park

Mick Webb reveals a land of puffins, tanks and Hollywood blockbusters.
Free Range: Meet the designers of tomorrow

Free Range

Meet the artists of the future
Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?

Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?

As scientists at Rothamsted's GM trials plead with activists not to sabotage their work, Michael McCarthy visits the battle field
Monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV

Monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV

Deep in Cameroon's rainforests, poachers are killing primates for food. Evan Williams reports from Yokadouma on a practice that could create a pandemic
Catcalls, whistles, groping: just another day for a young woman

Catcalls, whistles, groping: just another day for a young woman

Government urged to take abuse more seriously as London study shows 41 per cent are harassed
Jailing of Maori separatists stirs colonial-era resentment

Jailing of Maori separatists stirs colonial-era resentment

Militant Tuhoe tribe members defiant amid claims race relations had been set back 100 years