Free school champions on defensive as inspectors slam poor achievement

Since the free school movement was launched by the coalition, seven inspection reports have been produced with three schools – including the first two to be assessed in Yorkshire – found to require improvement.

The Yorkshire Post revealed yesterday that the King’s Science Academy, in Bradford, had been rated as requiring improvement.

Last month Batley Grammar which converted into a free school from the private sector in 2011, was also placed in this category which has been created by Ofsted this academic year.

The National Union of Teachers’ General Secretary Christine Blower told the Yorkshire Post the latest reports should put paid to the idea that free schools or academies were “axiomatically” the best placed to deliver education.

She said: “What is of great concern is that out of the first wave of free schools to be inspected by Ofsted three out of the seven ‘require improvement’.

“If this judgement was passed on a local authority maintained school it would be closed down or forced to accept academy status.”

Fiona Millar, of the Local Schools Network campaign group, said: “There is no real difference in outcomes between academies, free and maintained schools. In fact maintained schools do better overall, but school “type” is irrelevant.”

The Department for Education said it welcomed the fact that the majority of the first seven free schools inspected were found to be good.

A spokeswoman said: “This is a brilliant achievement when these schools have been open just over a year. Where Ofsted found that a minority ‘require improvement’, we are confident that the right steps are being taken.”

Ofsted found King’s Science Academy needed to improve leadership and management at all levels and called for an external review of its governance.

The school’s principal Sajid Hussain Raza responded by saying that Ofsted had found it very difficult to understand their education methods.

Brigid Tullie, the headteacher of Batley Grammar, said the “requires improvement” category was the best it could have achieved having converted from the private sector as it did not have key stage two data from the pupils earlier education and so could not set targets for pupils as other state schools would do.