A school rooted in the belief that Britain must try harder

LONDON LETTER:TOBY YOUNG'S father, Michael, who eventually became a Labour member of the House of Lords, was the man who coined the word meritocracy in a 1958 satirical essay which portrayed a United Kingdom run by the intellectual elite.

The belief in excellence, even if self-declared, has passed to a new generation. Next month, his son opens the West London Free School, where 120 uniformed pupils will gather in a school controlled by parents. There they will study Latin until they are 14, pore over a traditional curriculum and take part in competitive sports, as a rule.

Discipline will be rigorous, though not draconian, while after-school clubs for drama, music and sport organised by volunteers will require pupils’ attendance until 5pm, though some of the attractions planned are far above the usual offerings.

The pupils in the school, which opens on September 7th, will be divided into “houses” – with echoes of the UK’s elite and expensive private schools, or perhaps Hogwarts – named Athenians, Corinthians, Olympians and Spartans.

Young’s dream school was the first free school to secure funding from education secretary Michael Gove, who believes education has suffered from an excess of local authority control and a lack of willingness to strive for the highest standards.

It will be joined by two dozen others – far fewer than Gove had hoped, but many parents interested in the concept are keeping their children on the sidelines until they see whether free schools mark a new departure or another dead end.

Young looks back on his own experiences in a British state school with regret and disappointment, leaving with just a pass grade in English – despite going on to become a successful and controversial journalist.

Too often, he believes, education in Britain since the effective demise of grammar schools in the 1970s has suffered from a refusal to strive for the best, offering little to radically improve the life-chances of those in the classroom.

Opinion on the new educational creature is sharply divided. Some argue that free schools will suck investment away from the regular system and fail to provide the advantages promised by their advocates.

Young, who gathered 50 local parents in his sitting-room for the first meeting to bring life to his dream, disputes this, as do others, insisting their creation has cost considerably less than half of a nearby publicly run academy.

The West London Free School is not, Young argues, appealing to those who are rich, since it does not charge fees, but, rather, to those who want a “rigorous” education for their off-spring. High standards, he believes, are not just a matter for the ambitious middle-classes.

The number of children qualifying for free school meals will be slightly higher than average, while the ethnic mix in the classroom will reflect the local community outside its walls. Up to 40 per cent will be from black or Asian communities. Grants will be available to pay for after-school activities for those who cannot afford it.

“The people who are biting my arms to come here are the people from the local council estates who don’t have anywhere else to send their children,” Young said this week, as he stood in a building still being finished.

So far, the Department of Education estimates that free schools which qualify for state-paid books, teachers’ salaries and heating will cost £130 million, less than 3 per cent of its capital budget in this straitened budgetary year.

Some of the free schools, such as Batley Grammar in Kirklees in Yorkshire, are private schools that are changing status to get state money but still remain free of local authority control, while others will begin life in temporary accommodation.

Half, says the Department of Education, are located in the most deprived 30 per cent of British communities and will help to improve educational standards in areas where low achievement is the norm, not the exception.

Already there have been charges that rules have been bent to fast-track the free schools as part of Conservative prime minister David Cameron’s ambitions to create a Big Society, where more control is taken by the public at large.

Officials were told by Gove to offer a £500,000 grant without delay to the New Schools Network – a charity that offers advice and help to those trying to set up free schools, and the only one invited to bid for the money.

However, many of those parents interested in setting up such schools have failed to get funding, with officials in the department unconvinced they had made a proper business case.

Some of those who received approval have later struggled to get pupils, with some still advertising for entrants days before they are due to open, leaving them with a hole in their budgets because state grants are tied to numbers.

The Krishna-Avanti primary school in Leicester – the first Hindu free school offering vegetarian-only meals, with yoga and meditation – has recruited 50 of the 60 pupils it had expected. Initially it had hoped to have a 50/50 split between Hindus and others, but four out of five pupils will be Hindu.

Headmaster Christopher Small, who is not a Hindu and admits to being apprehensive about his new undertaking, believes Yoga and breathing exercises induce calmness. “I don’t think that I’ll have the problems with behaviour that I have encountered in the past,” he told journalists this week.