New Free School confirmed for the area

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• miss annie

  June 2013

  Any news on the totem poles that were moved to make way for Ashmount's new building @DavidBarry ? What plan did the council propse for the site? It's been empty a while. There are plenty of people with the money to pay the fees, and loads of locals who went to those kinds of schools and send their nippers to private school. Might as well have one a bit nearer to home and save on the traffic jams caused by parents trying to drive from Crouch End to Hampstead or Highgate. Cue the moaning about class, gentrification, how unfair everything is...

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• vetski

  June 2013

  No moaning from me - just wondering if they'll need a Latin teacher!

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• miss annie

  June 2013

  Oooo yes! Good idea.

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• andy

  June 2013

  Any confirmation of this , David Barry? What authority is this done under? Seems a bit off to reduce the assets of any organisation for no recompense.

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• Mirandola

  June 2013

  @andy, Academies Act 2010 Schedule 1. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/32/schedule/1

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• David Barry

  June 2013

  @andy. The information is reliable.

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• David Barry

  June 2013

  @ annie<div><br></div><div>You wrote:</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; ">"What plan did the council propse for the site? It's been empty a while."</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; ">Answer.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; ">The site was vacated in December 2012.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; "> Islington have been</span> drew up a big plan referring to various important strategic sites, which, not surprisingly included the Ashmount site. In that bit of the plan the council said they wanted to use the site for housing. The plan had to go through stages. The first was a draft stage. It then went out to consultation. There was an exhibition about it in the Hornsey Lane Community Centre relating only to Ashmount. It was amended is some respects in light of responses, and then, last December submitted to detailed scrutiny, in public  by an Independent Planning Inspector.</div><div><br></div><div>The Inspectors final report, published a couple of weeks ago said about the old Ashmount site</div><div><br></div><div>"46. Having carefully considered the question of educational need, I am satisfied that the Council’s evidence on this issue is robust and clearly demonstrates that the loss of this site for educational use will not undermine the future provision of school places either in Islington or in the adjacent London Borough of Haringey. Furthermore it is clear that refurbishment of the school buildings has been thoroughly investigated and has led to the conclusion that they cannot be easily adapted to meet modern educational standards. I conclude that the allocation is supported by robust evidence on the provision of educational accommodation.”</div><div>The overall conclusion of the Inspector was that the allocation of the Ashmount site “for residential and community use, including open space” is “justified, consistent with national policy and effective...”</div><div><br></div><div>BUT the inspector also wrote:</div><div><br></div><div>“it (the site) remains for education use until permission has been granted for a change of use by the Secretary of State for Education.”</div>

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• andy

  June 2013

  <div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">I just found this, tweeted by Fiona Millar, and was about to cite it to back up the original point before noting that it was written by David! </font></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: small;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: small;">http://ht.ly/ms4Kw</span></div><div><br></div>;

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• yagamuffin

  June 2013

  <font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">I don't have children and don't know anyone else locally who does so I don't really know the state of our local schools. Having said that I haven't seen anything on here or anywhere else to suggest that the area needs a new school.</font><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">On the face of it it seems that the Government are giving an overseas company a not-fit-for-purpose school sitting on a multi-million pound piece of real estate for free. A school that is neither needed nor wanted. The sceptic in me fully expects (should the Tories form a majority Government after the next election) <span style="font-size: 10pt;">the</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Swiss company to sell the land for housing at a huge profit in a few years time.</span></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">The Government's policy of privatising our education system, like the NHS is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.</font></div>

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• David Barry

  June 2013

  Actually, yagamuffin  its not privatisation.<div><br></div><div>Privatising is when you sell a state asset to private holders. BT for example. Royal Mail, no doubt, sometime. </div><div><br></div><div>This asset is NOT  being SOLD to Bellvue Education Ltd. It is being seized from Islington Council and GIVEN to Bellvue Education Ltd. So an asset is converted by statute from being a public asset to being a private one. Obviously being given a public asset, free of charge, for your own use is a very significant transfer of wealth into your own hands.</div><div><br></div><div>I am no historian but wasnt the last time something like this happened the Enclosure Acts, that seized common land and transferred it to private landlords? </div><div><br></div><div>Are there any "trotskyist enemies of promise" (copywrite: Michael Gove) on this site who can advise?</div><div><br></div>

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• andy

  June 2013 edited June 2013

  David, I think the last example<span style="font-size: 10pt;"> was probably West Ham getting the Olympic Stadium, and Manchester City getting the Commonwealth stadium before that.</span>

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• poxy

  June 2013

  There aren't many things that get me riled but this fair boils my piss.

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• Mirandola

  June 2013

  Can Bellevue sell it on?

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• yagamuffin

  June 2013

  @Andy, I think both of those are leases, certainly I think the City Of Manchester Stadium is leased by Manchester City from the City Council, I think West Ham's arrangement will be similar.

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• David Barry

  June 2013

  The technicality, it turns out is that the land will be leased to a special purpose vehicle set up by Bellevue Ltd, the " Bellevue Trust" which (Oh joy!) is a tax exempt charity. The lease is for 125 years at a "peppercorn" rent. Bellvue Ltd will be able to use the land without owning it, providing the Bellevue Trust, which they control, agrees to let them....<div><br></div><div>That way the claim can be made that Bellevue Ltd are not getting the land, and also they will not have to pay business rates on the site.</div>

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• ADGS

  July 2013

  This is at once disgusting and ridiculous.

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• Ali

  July 2013

  So is this Free School charging fees ?

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• Papa

  July 2013

  If it's a Free School then surely <a href="http://www.education.gov.uk/a00200109/faqs-types-of-free-school">it has to be free</a>?<br><br>I actually think the free schools thing is a decent idea, we desperately need the standard of inner city and big urban area schools dragged up to the same level as they are in the leafy suburbs and the existing system has tried and failed to do that.<br><br>A free school there would be competing to drum up standards and more housing means more kids, so you need more good school places.<br><br>But on the suggestions above this looks like it will be a private school - that is what <a href="http://blvue.com/our-schools/">Bellevue do</a>.<br><br><a href="http://www.wandsworthprep.com/admissions/fees/">In Wandsworth their Prep School costs £4,000 a year</a><br><br>So in such an instance, taking the building off the council which was going to sell below market value for social housing and then use that money to help fund improving its schools would seem very wrong indeed.<br><br>Unless of course, the business running the private school paid a fair rent to Islington thus providing it with an income generating asset. <br><br>In this case the peppercorn rent says that isn't happening either.<br><br>So is Bellevue really setting up a fee-charging school there?<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>

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• ChangN4N6

  July 2013

  4k isent bad for a quality education, and prob no social problems eg drugs. Not everyone can pay that, true, but I bet most on here can. Like anything else ppl value it more if they have to pay for the service. And I assume (from kids round here who's parents save up for private ed) the kids take it more seriously. Just saying. Chang

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• David Barry

  July 2013

  It is 4k a term, by the way, so 12 thousand a year. Which is quite a commitment for most people especially if you have more than one. , but actually while I can see why people have jumped to the conclusion that it will be a fee paying school, because, in general, that is what Bellevue do, and how they scratch a living, on this occasion it is a government funded "Free School" they will be running. So unless the rules change no fees. They get the site for nothing, (at cost to Islington)the government pay to fix up the building, (at cost to the taxpayer). Bellevue then run the school with the running costs being met by the government again. So not such a high risk business.

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• miss annie

  July 2013

  So if it is government funded the usual stringent admissions criteria don't apply and you get a 4k a term private school education for nowt? Bargain! There'll be people who were bitching about this a minute ago queuing up to put their little darlings names down.

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• Detritus

  July 2013

  If I had the money my son would go to a private school. I was shown the quality of the education at uni. I have no shame in trying to do the best for him.

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• David Barry

  July 2013

  err Miss Annie, its a government funded school, being run by a for profit organisation. It does not get more money than other government funded schools. Bellevue have never suggested that they intend to subsidize it.<div><br></div><div>I think I should post some links.....</div>

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• David Barry

  July 2013

  To start with this is the <a href="http://www.education.gov.uk/a00200109/faqs-types-of-free-school">government page about Free Schools.</a><div><br></div><div><br></div>

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• David Barry

  July 2013

  Actually better still, I shall cut and paste this little bit from Wikipedia which I know to be accurate.<div><br></div><div>"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19px; ">A <b>free school</b> is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School" title="School" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">school</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England" title="England" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">England</a> funded by taxpayers, and free to attend, and not controlled by a local authority.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_school_(England)#cite_note-1" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(6, 69, 173); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a></sup>. Mainstream free schools are academically non-selective (following admissions law as it applies to maintained schools), while 16-19 free schools are able to select pupils based on GCSE grades or other criteria."</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19px; ">The funding level is supposed to be at the same level as other state schools, although there are technical difficulties in getting exact equvilences; so the education you get in  a  Free School is a bit under half 12,000 a year.....</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19px; ">Just like the other schools, but unlike the fee paying ones.</span></div>

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• twinspark

  July 2013

  Anyone of a mind to pay for schooling would probably have splashed out on  a country pile by the time<br>their kids are school age or 7-ish latest. Happened a lot a Stroud Green School an exodus to the shires<br>with a pied-a-terre on in SG to hang the red braces in. The school improved no end as a result. The 'Gove Principle' for Free Schools is simplistic like all Tory schemes, or aspiration marketing - it's appeal is akin to 'you're either with us or against us' or 'you can't knock success' [ unless it's GCSE and A levele results that is]  So they cream off kids from houses with a spare 12k or the means to borrow it and hope to make the other schools in the area worse and thereby increase pressure on the local authority. Social engineering at it's most divisive and the best bit is we pay for it not the govt. - she would have been proud of young Michael. The whole scheme will crash & burn much like Yadda-yadda Gove himself.<br><br>btw Man.City gave their old ground at Maine Road to the council for development in to flats and houses in return for the Commonwealth Stadium and a loan to develop that for football. The council are also on a share of tickets sales above 35,000 for games at the new stadium. <br>

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• helen

  July 2013

  Just to be clear - this will be a new primary school, no charge to attend. it's a Free School because it is in essence "free" from being managed by the local authority. Instead the Dept For Education pay for the school directly. What is very very different is that free schools aren't forced to employ trained teachers (they can employ who they like), they can be selective of pupils, they don't have to meet certain standards around catering and other items and they have very different employment contracts for staff. <br>I don't understand the need for another primary around here - we're not at full utilisation yet of the primaries we have (although that will begin to change in 3-5 years as the baby boom comes through) and to correct something mentioned earlier - the quality of primary and secondary education in inner London is of a higher quality than much in the suburbs and rural areas - we now lead in terms of quality and results which has been a massive turnaround in the last 20 years.<br>Free schools are a massive problem in the making - the DfE can't afford to fund the number they've agreed to so it looks like will become profit making in the future. It also removes all the central services that help all those kids that really need it regardless of wealth, class or background - from speech and occupational therapy to any kind of counselling and education psychology services - this will be profound as we continue to move towards a society increasingly of haves and have nots.<br>Ashmount moved out of that building because it was shockingly unfit for purpose. I can't imagine how it can possibly be refurbed well enough to make it work again - that building needs to come down and be rebuilt. No doubt the new school realises it will be able to make a case for that + some housing on the side in a very few years time (they'll soon be allowed to sell off parts of their land too according to this mornings papers...)<br>

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• David Barry

  July 2013

  @helen.<div><br></div><div>Quite right a "Free School" does not charge fees. But to correct you on a point they are not allowed to be selective. Although there are claims that this last can be got around by doing things like requiring an expensive school uniform.</div>

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• helen

  July 2013

  indeed. "difficult to meet the requirements" versus "selective". it is unfortunately easy to weed out who you don't want<br>

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• David Barry

  July 2013

  Press coverage here:<div><br></div><div><br><div><a href="http://www.islingtontribune.com/news/2013/jul/talks-begin-handover-£3m-ashmount-site-new-free-school-angry-headteachers-say-plan-wil">The Islington Tribune -some articles and letters which appeared last Friday.</a></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div>

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