Schools: Faith Schools and Free Schools

Baroness Massey of Darwen Excerpts

Wednesday 28th January 2015 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Massey of Darwen]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the conditions which must be met before a new state-funded faith school or free school is allowed to be established; who sets and agrees the conditions; and how the conditions must guarantee a broad and balanced curriculum for pupils.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools (Lord Nash) (Con)]

My Lords, the department sets out clear conditions in guidance and application guides for the establishment of all schools. All state-funded schools, whether faith-designated or not, must deliver a broad and balanced curriculum. This is a requirement of education legislation or of their academy funding agreement. Ofsted inspections place a clear emphasis on assessing whether schools are providing a broad and balanced education.

[Baroness Massey of Darwen (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for that response, but is he aware that a recent Ofsted report described a free school as follows:

“any teaching or learning going on at the school is purely incidental … Student achievement is weak … Standards are low …one of the worst schools”,

that they have inspected, and criticised bullying and discrimination? It seems evident that there must have been some lack of organisation in setting up that school. Is it worth risking children’s achievement and well-being for an educational whim?

[Lord Nash]

My Lords, we have a rigorous approach to setting up new schools. They will not all work. We have closed a couple of free schools, with a total number of 200 pupils. Although that is very serious for those pupils and their parents, that compares with getting on for a quarter of a million new free school places that we will introduce under the free school UTC and studio school programme. Of the 87 pre-warning notices that this Government have issued to academies, more than 60% have been to sponsors approved by the previous Government, so it is clear that setting up new schools is not entirely straightforward.