‘Free school cut through our community like a knife’

It is five years since the first wave of free schools were approved accompanied by a torrent of publicity. They came with high expectations they would increase choice, raise standards and narrow gaps in communities around the country.

In the intervening years much attention has been focused on the personal stories of the parents, teachers and others who were successful in securing government funding for what was billed as a radical reform to the English education system.

But what of the other local schools and pupils in communities where the free school revolution was intended to galvanise performance? The impact on them has received less attention.

In one small community in rural Suffolk, the decision to approve a free school continues to reverberate and, in the eyes of a group of local pupils, not in a positive way.

The free school movement in Suffolk was controversial from the start. The local authority’s decision to move from a three- to two-tier system meant sites used by middle schools (which took children in years 5, 6, 7 and 8) became available at once. Free school campaigners seized on several, even though there was no need for more places.

In the town of Leiston, in a sparsely populated area bordering the coast between Saxmundham and Aldeburgh, the existing secondary, Leiston High, stood to gain from the reorganisation, which promised more resources and a fresh start under a new name, Alde Valley school.

“Everyone was very excited,” recalls ex-pupil Johnnie Wright, who was head boy and is now studying history and politics at the University of East Anglia. “The community came out in force at the parents’ evening. Our school would grow and our sixth form would gain its own building and new status.”

But just as the new secondary school was getting under way, the Department for Education approved a smaller free school in nearby Saxmundham, on one of the now defunct middle school sites. This was in spite of its own impact assessment [pdf] stating this could threaten Alde Valley’s long-term viability.

The new school was sponsored by the Seckford Foundation Free School Trust, a private school provider. It promised an academic curriculum, expertise from neighbouring Woodbridge independent school, and that the school’s first GCSE results would see 50% of pupils achieve five good passes in the government’s favoured Ebacc subjects.

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Wright, and many of his fellow pupils, say the impact on their education shouldn’t be underestimated. “We were painted in a less favourable light,” he says. “Alde Valley has always been an inclusive school with a strong focus on vocational as well as academic subjects, but that was immediately compared negatively with the new free school promise.”

George Edwards, who was going into year 12 at the time, says: “It felt as though half the community were turning their noses up at us and saying we weren’t good enough. We got used to it but it meant growing a thick skin.”

Possibly more damaging was the impact on their school’s roll, in a coastal area with little scope for population expansion. Alde Valley dropped from six to four forms of entry in the subsequent years. According to reports in the local media, the current year 7 at the school, which has now become an academy, has only a third of places filled.

Meanwhile, the new free school failed to recruit as well. It opened in 2012 with 105 pupils out of a total of 312 places. This term, according to the Seckford trust, there are 315 pupils enrolled out of a maximum 600.

To add to the sense of injustice felt by the Alde Valley pupils, free school startup funding is partly based on a prediction of numbers expected in each year group, even if the places are not filled. Any surplus funding should be clawed back the following financial year.

The free school’s per-pupil funding, and the clawback, have not been made public in spite of local FoI requests, but there are suspicions in the community that the free school was initially more generously funded than its neighbours because it received funding for places that were not filled.

The effect on pupils at Alde Valley was keenly felt. Fewer pupils meant funding cuts, which reduced subjects the school could offer and staff numbers. In September 2013, Ofsted judged the school “inadequate”, while the free school was shortly afterwards judged “good”.

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Katie Clark, who has just completed her A-levels at Alde Valley, says it felt unfair and chaotic. “There was so much change at once. We were expecting hundreds of new pupils but they didn’t turn up. There were pupils moving between our school and the free school and we lost teachers, who were made redundant or put on temporary contracts.

“So many of our teachers were fantastic but you sensed that morale was low, people were mopping up each other’s timetables and at some points it felt as though there was a mass exodus.”

Ellie Doubleday, who also finished her A-levels last year, was forced to drop sociology at the end of year 12 as the course was cut. “I felt very angry and frustrated. It was a new subject which I wanted to continue; other friends had to drop psychology.”

Musician Megan Rushbrook, who left Alde Valley two years ago and is about to start at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff, worked as a tutor in the school during her gap years. “I started as a history technician because one teacher went off on long-term sick leave. Everyone was taking on jobs they weren’t meant to be doing and I ended up tutoring in history and music. I saw the pressure the teachers were under as everything got stripped to the bone.”

This summer’s GCSE results provided another twist in this very modern tale of two schools. Saxmundham became one of the first free schools in the country to produce a set of results from the year 9 group that started as part of the transition from the old middle-school system.

These flew in the face of the extravagant claims that preceded its approval by the last government. Only 28% of the pupils achieved the government’s benchmark of five good GCSEs including English and maths, whereas at Alde Valley, the figure was 37%, with a 100% A-level pass rate.

The Seckford trust immediately launched a review of its “disappointing” results, which it claimed were due to a challenging cohort of pupils. But Katie Clark’s twin sister, Megan, says this only increased the anger among her peers: “We have never tried to use the excuse of a poor intake at our school, which we are passionate about. We are proud that it has always been so representative of the local community.

“People ask if we would still go to the school if we had our time again and of course we would. But there was always an agenda to present us in a poorer light. The funding cuts crushed morale and made it harder to flourish.”

As the new term gets under way, results and pupil numbers at both schools suggest each remains vulnerable. The new headteacher at Alde Valley declined to comment, but the school has mothballed its new sixth-form centre to bring pupils back on to its main site.

Rob Cawley, principal and CEO of the Seckford trust, believes both schools will remain viable: “Saxmundham free school was responding to the need identified by the local community for additional choice. We are a truly community oriented trust. We are attracting students from a wider catchment than the immediate local area. By opening Saxmundham free school on behalf of the residents, the town has kept a secondary school at the heart of its community.”

A spokesman for the DfE said: “Free schools are at the heart of our plan to deliver real social justice by ensuring pupils from all backgrounds have access to a world class education. Free schools are more likely to be rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted than other state schools and they are meeting parental demand for more good school places.”

Suffolk blogger and school governor James Hargrave, who has been following the fortunes of free schools in his county, believes the policy is fatally flawed in some rural areas. “People don’t understand this context. It isn’t a highly populated urban area with expanding demand. There aren’t enough children here, so this isn’t real competition, it is a race to die”, he says.

The Alde Valley pupils refuse to see their school in such a pessimistic light and are hopeful that public opinion may turn. “This was all totally unnecessary,” say Johnnie Wright. “We had a real community here which the free school cut through like a knife. It felt very personal, but [Alde Valley] is more settled with strong new leadership and staff very committed to making it work. It really deserves to succeed.”