Sunday 12th February 2012 | 18:00

Lord Hill: Free Schools are a grass-roots revolution

Writing exlusively for PoliticsHome ahead of the latest round of applications for Free Schools, Education Minister Lord Hill says the Coalition has brought in a 'grass roots revolution' in education.

When we opened the first round of applications for Free Schools, less than six weeks after the Coalition Government was formed, there was lots of scepticism. Would anyone really want to open a new school? Would busy parents and teachers find the time to do it? Could you really get a great school up and running with pupils sitting at desks in little more than a year? Would any parents actually want to put their child’s education into the hands of schools with no track record?

It did not take long for the answer to all these questions to become clear: a resounding yes. And from today, a year and half on, we will start to receive what I expect will be hundreds more applications from people who want to make a difference and set up their own Free School.

In the months after the Government came to office, 323 Free School groups came forward. Applications came from teachers, parents, charities and existing schools. The range of plans varied enormously – from a new primary in Enfield set up by the outstanding Academy principal, Patricia Sowter, to the Nishkam Free School in Birmingham, which the community helped to fund and refurbish. They had one thing in common: they were all fired by the desire to create great schools for local children, with high standards and high ambition.

Twenty-four groups battled to open faster than any state-funded school has done in recent times. Without the constraints of town halls and Whitehall, groups have been coming up with ideas that we would never have come up with sitting in the Department for Education. Schools like the Free School Norwich which is open for 51 weeks per year. The first two bilingual schools, which are coming down the track. We have got a special school for children with autism being set up, and schools for children who have fallen out of mainstream school, with one sponsored by Everton FC. Small rural schools and big city schools, primaries and secondaries. Schools that offer Latin, and schools that will specialise in engineering or vocational subjects.

And many of these are serving some of our poorest children, in places where school standards are weak. Half of the first 24 Free Schools are in the 30 per cent most deprived communities in England.

Parents are voting with their feet. Around two-thirds of Free Schools were oversubscribed for their first year. The West London Free School has just reported more than 1,000 applications for 120 places in September 2012.

This is a grass-roots revolution. Groups opened 24 Free Schools in the first year. This September, more than 70 are aiming to open, including some University Technical Colleges and Studio Schools. We can expect many more in 2013. How the Free Schools programme will develop, we cannot yet tell since it will be the inspiration and desire of teachers, parents and charities that will drive it. That is one of the many things I like about it: it is not monochrome. It is not top-down. It is not one size fits all. It has confounded the critics by demonstrating people’s capacity to do good. And it has shown that, given a choice, parents from all backgrounds will exercise that if it will mean higher standards for their children.