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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/feb/27/remind-me-why-we-need-free-schools-peter-hyman
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| Can someone remind me why we need free schools at all? | Can someone remind me why we need free schools at all? |
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| Did you know, state-school teachers, that “it’s time for a revolution in the way [you] teach”? “Oh, not another one,” you may think, but Peter Hyman, headteacher of School 21, a free school in east London, says so. Our schools are exam factories, he claims, while Ofsted has been too punitive and needs “a complete overhaul”. | Did you know, state-school teachers, that “it’s time for a revolution in the way [you] teach”? “Oh, not another one,” you may think, but Peter Hyman, headteacher of School 21, a free school in east London, says so. Our schools are exam factories, he claims, while Ofsted has been too punitive and needs “a complete overhaul”. |
| Bear with me while I take deep breaths and try not to scream. Because we all know this, Mr Hyman. Teachers have been saying it for decades. “I’m sick to bloody death of hearing about ‘exam factories’”, says Fielding, who has spent his working life at the chalkface. He has been forced to teach exams ad nauseam: weekly tests, plus Sats, GCEs, GCSEs, GCSE Mature, CEEs, A-levels, AS-levels, S-levels and Oxbridge Entrance to the rare odd pupil who made it past his/her underfunded comprehensive, where the teachers work themselves to near-breakdown, teaching huge classes in crumbling buildings that our government cannot afford to repair. | Bear with me while I take deep breaths and try not to scream. Because we all know this, Mr Hyman. Teachers have been saying it for decades. “I’m sick to bloody death of hearing about ‘exam factories’”, says Fielding, who has spent his working life at the chalkface. He has been forced to teach exams ad nauseam: weekly tests, plus Sats, GCEs, GCSEs, GCSE Mature, CEEs, A-levels, AS-levels, S-levels and Oxbridge Entrance to the rare odd pupil who made it past his/her underfunded comprehensive, where the teachers work themselves to near-breakdown, teaching huge classes in crumbling buildings that our government cannot afford to repair. |
| Why, because that would cost the government £6.7bn, and, according to the National Audit Office, the free school programme will cost them £9.7bn by 2021. So it’s a bit saucy for a free-school head, in his shiny new building, to tell other teachers how to teach. And lucky him, he doesn’t have to stick to the national curriculum, or employ qualified teachers, or obey a local authority. Hyman can also plan his own holidays and term times, and set his staff’s wages. | Why, because that would cost the government £6.7bn, and, according to the National Audit Office, the free school programme will cost them £9.7bn by 2021. So it’s a bit saucy for a free-school head, in his shiny new building, to tell other teachers how to teach. And lucky him, he doesn’t have to stick to the national curriculum, or employ qualified teachers, or obey a local authority. Hyman can also plan his own holidays and term times, and set his staff’s wages. |
| Are the dice loaded, or are the dice loaded? But despite their massive handicap, teachers in comprehensives also teach “critical thinking”, “complex debates” and imaginative “real-world projects”, just as Hyman boasts of his school doing. Having taught for 25 years, I’ve seen them at it, and they deserve support, respect and medals, not another dose of condescension. | |
| They also need school buildings in a decent state of repair, with lovely big school kitchens and dining rooms, smaller classes, more staff and more classroom assistants, and then perhaps teachers wouldn’t be leaving in droves, and we wouldn’t need free schools at all. Can someone remind me why we ever did? | They also need school buildings in a decent state of repair, with lovely big school kitchens and dining rooms, smaller classes, more staff and more classroom assistants, and then perhaps teachers wouldn’t be leaving in droves, and we wouldn’t need free schools at all. Can someone remind me why we ever did? |