Labour U-Turn on Free Schools and Welfare

I think they've split them up into 2 tutor groups. At first it was for 60 pupils. Then it was 40 they were expecting to sign up, split into two groups. Now there are only 31. The ads for teaching staff are fte, so it does not say how many fte there are. But they have to be able to cover a range of subjects. I wonder if they are all heads of departments.

the economics of that sound highly suspect, even with free schools being given extra cash. Not 9 full time qualified staff, I'll bet. And I wonder how they will manage when it's time to turn the heating on - school boilers not designed for heating one classroom.

Durham Free School has just opened. It has 31 year 7 pupils and 9 staff. If that does not do better than the local authority school it took over from, it will be a pity for those kids.
It opened up in a sports academy and college that got closed down because of falling pupil numbers in the area. It's still not a permanent site, but if it moves and the building is sold off, the community of over a thousand will lose all the sports facilities. However, 31 pupils will have the equivalent of private education, so that's alright then!
The head looks like he could be Lembit Opik's brother.

Yes that is what it says on the BBC website jen - very qualified support and not as "free" as they are now.
Grant Shapps is quoted as saying that free schools are driving up standards. I would have thought it was too soon to assess the progress made by pupils.
You would only really be able to say this after a group of students had gone through the 5 years to GCSE - and even progress data needs a couple of years to see if they are making more or less than expected progress. This is what OFSTE will be looking at currently in the first batch that opened.

jen - yes, that's what I heard

And Stephen Twigg has been saying exactly the same about existing free schools for two years. Not much of a u-turn really.

POGS Which Shadow Secretary made that ungrammatical statement and who was speaking on behalf of the Labour Party?

Weird, because I saw something completely different on the news. Hunt said he wasn't going to close down the free schools that Gove opened, but the local authorities would have oversight and the teachers would have to be qualified. Also there would only be new schools opening up in areas where there was identifiable need seen by local authorities.
That's what I thought I heard him say, anyway.

Any central governments will want to reduce LAs as it cuts central costs.

Not unexpected but disappointing.