Hackney free school in limbo as opening delayed another year

Hackney Wick Academy

The future of a Hackney free school has been cast into doubt after it announced it is delaying its opening in order to raise “significant additional capital investment”.

Secondary school Hackney Wick Academy, proposed by the educational charity Debate Mate, was approved in June 2014 by the then Education Secretary Michael Gove.

The five-form school with room for 150 pupils aims to “harness the strengths of Debate Mate and have a strong focus on verbal learning and career-readiness”.

The school was originally scheduled to open in September 2015 but was delayed, and it has now announced it will not be opening in 2016 either.

Debate Mate has not responded to the Hackney Citizen’s requests for an explanation, but a statement on Hackney Wick Academy’s Facebook page read:

“Whilst the Hackney Wick Academy (HWA) trust remain committed to tackling the deficit in school places and offering meaningful choice to parents and carers, we have after consultation with the Department for Education, taken the decision not to open the school in September 2016.

“We have taken this decision because the trust is currently raising significant additional capital investment to ensure that the school is state of the art and can serve not just the students but the entire community.”

All approved free schools receive a pre-opening grant set at £220,000 for primary and £300,000 for secondary schools, but the Department for Education (DfE) confirmed that Hackney Wick Academy had not yet received any grant funding.

A Freedom of Information request by the education publication Schools Week revealed that 53 free schools have pushed back their opening dates since September last year.

Jamie Duff from the Hackney branch of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) said: “The delay in opening this school exposes the flaws in the government’s ideologically driven free school programme.

“Under the government’s plans free schools can open any time, any where, any place. This policy is motivated not by what is best for children but by the need to create a market to facilitate the privatisation of state education.”

A DfE spokesperson said: “Free schools are a vital part of our plan for education. The trust has put together an innovative and interesting proposal for Hackney Wick Academy, which we want to support.

“We are currently in discussion with the trust to determine how best to deliver this proposal.”