http://www.thecentreforschooldesign.org/2010/05/new-government-long-signalled-swift-action/ Thu, 12 May 2011 14:36:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://www.thecentreforschooldesign.org/2010/05/new-government-long-signalled-swift-action/comment-page-1/#comment-105 John Waldron Sun, 16 May 2010 08:30:52 +0000 http://www.thecentreforschooldesign.org/?p=1160#comment-105 Free Schools: Before we get too carried away on the wave of post-election euphoria where is the evidence that free schools will address the problems of the 'long tail' of underachievement in the UK? Where is the evidence that parents will take an active part in setting up and running schools when in many areas teachers struggle to engage them with their child's education and there is already a dearth of applicants for governors? Where is the evidence that they will be able to manage the premises effectively when one of the original reasons for BSF was to deal with the neglect caused by is the mismanagement of devolved budgets? By all means let’s look at systems in other countries but where is the evidence that Sweden, a small and socially cohesive country that only just scrapes into the top ten in the PISA tables, provides the silver bullet? Free Schools: Before we get too carried away on the wave of post-election euphoria where is the evidence that free schools will address the problems of the ‘long tail’ of underachievement in the UK? Where is the evidence that parents will take an active part in setting up and running schools when in many areas teachers struggle to engage them with their child’s education and there is already a dearth of applicants for governors? Where is the evidence that they will be able to manage the premises effectively when one of the original reasons for BSF was to deal with the neglect caused by is the mismanagement of devolved budgets? By all means let’s look at systems in other countries but where is the evidence that Sweden, a small and socially cohesive country that only just scrapes into the top ten in the PISA tables, provides the silver bullet?

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