Bilingual Primary free school in SE London

[pgnjohnson]

I am the founder and one of the promoters of a free school initiative to create a bilingual primary school in Southwark or possibly E Lambeth / W Lewisham. The school would teach a balanced curriculum in English and German, with an additional emphasis on the arts. We believe passionately that all children, whatever their linguistic or cultural background, can benefit in a bilingual environment. Research shows that early language learning is not only beneficial in itself, but is associated with many other cognitive and developmental gains that can last throughout your child?s life. We would hope to open in 2012.

Our school would provide language units in both English and German to support children in either language as needed and we?d hope to organise activities for families to meet each other and improve their language skills together.

We have a website on www.bilingualfreeschool.co.uk and if you like what we?re about you can register your support there.

We hope to submit our first stage application to the Department for Education in the next month and are now gathering public support for our initiative. We?re delighted with the response so far, but of course we?d like as many supporters as we can attract. So if you?re a parent with an interest in language who would think about supporting your child through a bilingual education, we?d love to hear from you.

Peter Johnson

[zeban]

I really don't understand Free Schools. Whilst I like the idea of putting more emphasis on languages, if there are more schools then how will there be enough public money to go around? Wouldn't it be wiser to work harder to make languages more important in the Nation curriculum? Aren't free schools just private schools paid for by public money? I'm also not sure I feel comfortable with a school run by a few parents with their own ideas about what an education should be like.

[pgnjohnson]

I'm not here to argue the case for government policy, but so far as I understand, at present new money is being made available for free schools. One simple reason for this is that population forecasts show that capacity, especially in London, needs to increase, so this will require more spending, whoever spends it.

On your second point, we are absolutely not creating a private school in any guise. Entry will be (and is required to be) free and comprehensive i.e. non-selective on any basis. None of us parents plans to run a school. What we are doing now is developing what we think is a good idea and later - hopefully - a team of really good teachers and educationalists to run the school day-to-day. And of course, we'll only get approved if the Department thinks our curriculum is up to scratch.

Peter

[zeban]

Thank you for the reply Peter

[alice]

don't con yourself. its not 'new money' as referred to above by pgnjohnson. the money comes from cutting 'central services' and directly affects children with special needs, gifted etc - and any other specialist staff that come into schools.

[Fuschia]

The Building Schools for the Future programme

Harnessing Technology Grant for schools

are victims already of capital funding being diverted for free schools

http://www.mikebakereducation.co.uk/blog/357/capital-spend-on-free-schools

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/10345302.stm

[nylonmeals]

Out of interest, why German as opposed to any other language?

[zeban]

Yes I did wonder about this so called 'new money' - considering we're supposed to not have any money! Also wondering why German? I'd choose Spanish- it's spoken in quite a few different countries. Or French for the same reason.

[Fuschia]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9389000/9389467.stm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/feb/15/free-school-freedom-of-information

[pgnjohnson]

Why German? - well, it just happens that my knowledge and interest are primarily in German and there's a fair amount of support for it in this area. French is widely covered already, and I believe a school is being started in Greenwich specialising in French. So far - at least for a free school - you'd have to go to Brighton for your Spanish... But the more languages the better, in my view.

[tiddles]

actually I know of a couple of primary schools in east dulwich have spanish as a very large part of their curriculum = woven throughout the whole curriculum.

I appreciate what you are planning to do but am heartily opposed to these free schools as it is just spreading what little there around even more thinly.

[zeban]

pgnjohnson- what's the difference between a free school and an Academy? I thought Academies were developed because of the increase in population?

[pgnjohnson]

Formally i.e. in terms of the enabling legislation that governs approval, structure, funding process, and regulation they are the same. You'd better ask the Department why there are two names.

[zeban]

I was asking you because I wanted your opinion. There must be more differences than that surely?

[pgnjohnson]

A new application process has been set up, but they are formally the same kind of institution and have the same obligations and freedoms.

[gowerhouseuk]

Free schools in London! Hard to believe. But a good way to grow on the education sector.

[Fuschia]

Nice first post ... Just to promote your n London private school, I guess?

[briankeating]

I believe this is a good idea for children to pick up more than one language which can be beneficial to them in the future.

[kateland]

I've been trying to find a Spanish/English school...so I'd say yay for this if Spanish! Sorry no help...and my sons only 4 months

Thanks for the links fuchsia

[tarafitness]

Hi there

Is this school still going ahead?

[pgnjohnson]

Yes, we are planning to open this September with classes in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. Whilst we are still waiting for DfE to confirm premises for us, we are focusing very hard on the SE22-SE24 area.

[Bouncy]

Hello Peter - I was wondering what your background is? Thanks.

[pgnjohnson]

Well, I'm a parent, have lived in Southwark for 14 years, school governor, work freelance. Our parent group contains people from a variety of professional backgrounds, including 2 teachers. CfBT, who will operate the school, are a major educational charity and have been around for 40 years.

[Bouncy]

Thanks for your reply, Peter. What do you work freelance as? I'd also be interested to hear more about your motivation for setting up a free school, about why you've chosen CfBT, about what their role would be, and what the role of the parent group would be. Thanks!

[pgnjohnson]

Happy to talk about this but hope you understand that I'd rather not do so piecemeal in a public forum. There is information about the parent group and CfBT (and much else) on the school website: www.jkps.org.uk. CfBT would operate the school and be accountable to the DfE for its performance. The parent group will provide two governors on a regular-sized governing body. We felt it made perfect sense to combine CfBT's reputation and professionalism with parents' local knowledge and personal enthusiasm.