Hackney new ‘free school’ opponents gain momentum

In favour: 'free school' proponent Andreas Wesemann

Hackney’s Save Our State Schools pressure group has called a public meeting on Wednesday 14 March at Dalston CLR James Library to launch a campaign against plans for a new free school in Hackney.

The plans, drawn up by Andreas Wesemann and the steering committee of the Hackney New School (HNS), were submitted to the Department for Education on February 23 with 502 parents’ signatures.  If approved, Hackney New School would aim to open in 2013.

A similar meeting hosted by Wesemann in January 2011 has prompted a digital mud-slinging match between the two camps, some of which has played out on the Anti Academies Alliance’s (AAA) website.

In an effort to galvanise local parents and councillors against Wesemann’s plans, the AAA will be leafleting local shopping centres and approaching local parents while they take their children to school.

Wesemann’s plans, and the opposition to them, both reflect the general consensus that Hackney’s secondary schools are over-subscribed and that a new one is needed.

Save Our State Schools and other opposition campaigns are committed to maintaining local authority control  over Hackney schools, while Wesemann has embraced the opportunity to come up with his own plans, prompted by Michael Gove’s push to open more free schools.

Ken Muller of the Save Our State Schools campaign said:  “We’re worried that this will undermine the local education system.”

Free schools are the only new schools allowed to open under Michael Gove’s Education Bill. They are accountable to central government rather than the local authority, and have more control over their curriculum and teaching provisions.

But campaigners for local authority schools are determined to stop the school from opening, insistent that it will open the floodgates to privatisation of local schools, ‘leech’ money from existing state schools and serve only the most privileged children.

Wesemann flatly denies these claims, stressing that HNS plans are designed not to undermine the local authority, but to try a new approach.

He said: “I’m not saying [local authority schools] are not the right way. I’m saying it’s not the only way.” He added that the school will not be run for profit, will use the same admissions code as state schools, and will aim to be situated in one of Hackney’s most deprived areas.

To read more about the Hackney New School and/or register your interest go to Hackney New School.

To read more about the Save Our State Schools campaign and / or sign the petition go here.