What's going to be different about free schools?

Michael Gove is now inviting the first applications for free schools

Free schools are getting ready to begin the journey from policy idea to desks and pupils.

But what do we know about these schools?

The coalition government is now inviting applications, with the aim of opening the first wave of free schools in autumn 2011.

During the election, the free schools policy was discussed in terms of parents setting up schools.

But much of the initial interest seems to be coming from groups of teachers, wanting to use their skills and enthusiams in more challenging inner-city areas.

About half of more than 700 expressions of interest are from teachers.

‘No excuses’

This is also in keeping with the government’s efforts to present the policy in terms of improving chances for the poorest families, rather than funding an escape route for middle class families from the local school system.

Education Secretary Michael Gove has relentlessly identified the plan with the charter schools in the United States, with their “no excuses” message.

Charter schools in the US have inspired free schools

There is also an emerging picture of where such schools are likely to be – with by far the largest concentration in London and the south east, with particular interest in west and south-west London.

And while there might be teachers wanting to set up free schools, the teachers’ unions are among the fiercest critics, saying they are a backdoor way of dismantling the state system.

It remains much less clear how many of these schools will be opened.

Mr Gove said there was no upper limit for places – or any target number to be achieved.

As initial start-up funding, the government is allocating £50m with an unspecified larger amount to follow, but Mr Gove said there was no way of telling how this might translate into school numbers.

Funding questions

This casts another shaft of light onto how these schools are going to be very different.

Instead of big, bright, hi-tech new schools, where a single academy could cost £25m, these free schools could be smaller and thriftier arrangements.

Planning rules are going to be changed so they can be set up in converted commercial or residential buildings. It’s going to be more Little House on the Prairie than Star Trek, village schools on a budget in an inner-city setting.

The message from the government is that ethos is more important than landmark buildings. They want to devolve control to local groups rather than local government planners.

But this will raise questions about what kind of minimum facilities will be allowed in schools. How will they give pupils a wide enough range of subjects and experiences?

These schools will have to comply with regulations on fair admissions – and plans for staffing and premises will have to show viability for at least five years.

Many of the regulations for standard of education and policies on behaviour and child protection seem to have been adopted from those applying to the independent sector.

These regulations include the requirement that all such schools must have access to outdoor playground areas

In fact, all free schools will have to register as independent schools – while remaining as “maintained” schools in terms of funding.

Parental interest

In terms of opening a free school, applicants will have to show there is demand from parents – and although there is no fixed threshold, Mr Gove says proposals should have the support of at least 40 to 50 parents for a primary school, and more for a secondary school.

Mr Gove also addressed concerns that such small schools, set up by like-minded people, could become pockets of extremism or fundamentalism.

He promised that “extremist groups will not be allowed anywhere near public money”.

There are some other big questions linked to the wider pressures on public spending.

How will such an expansion in schools be funded? It will mean paying for new teachers and equipping buildings, while still maintaining the existing school system.

Mr Gove has promised that this will not mean cutting per pupil spending – and it will not mean taking resources from existing schools. He also rejects as flawed the idea that opening a new, innovative school will damage other local schools.

The implication of this is that extra money – in large quantities – will be made available for free schools.

And when cuts are being made to education budgets, there will be questions about where this money will be found – and what might be cut to pay for it.

Public or private

There are also some delicate political sensitivities for the education secretary to negotiate. The Liberal Democrats, who heaped scorn on free schools during the election, will be expecting large sums to be spent on their own pupil premium policy to support poorer pupils.

Since both free schools and the pupil premium are now being aimed at raising achievement in disadvantaged areas, there could be some interesting attempts to weave together spending plans.

Another thorny area for the newly-launched free school project will be the relationship between publicly-funded free schools and private companies who might want to manage them for a fee.

The idea has been promoted as giving new freedoms to highly-motivated groups of parents, ambitious teachers and educational philanthropists. Converting free schools into an outsourcing operation would take off much of the idealistic gloss.

If there are still questions about the character of these new schools, Mr Gove’s argument would be that this is entirely the point. It’s up to the innovation of whoever launches a school to decide its ethos – and it shouldn’t be pre-determined by government.

Free schools have left the drawing board, but the final product has still to be road-tested.

Reference Link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/education/10350661.stm

Courtesy
BBC News

Rapper K'Naan's Wavin' Flag in World Cup triumph

An anthem by Somali-born rapper K’Naan has become the signature tune of this year’s World Cup after being used in Coca Cola commercials and going to number one in 14 countries.

But Wavin’ Flag was not written as a football song – beneath its celebratory tone is the story of its creator’s narrow escape from a life of war and his subsequent rise as a hip-hop star and global role model.

K’Naan was luckier than most Somalis when his country fell into civil war in 1991.

He was just 13 when his mother persuaded a US embassy official to let them leave on the last scheduled Somali Airlines flight, and the family moved to New York before settling in Toronto.

“I have pretty good examples of what has happened to those who hadn’t made the plane,” he says.

“It’s not good. Either they become militia boys, fighting all that time ’til now, or they’ve died.”

K’Naan’s cousins, who he was close to as a child, are among those who stayed. The rapper says he attracted more trouble than they did when he was growing up.

“So I think a lot about that. If they had to be in that world, imagine what it would be for me. I was the kid that they used to follow into danger zones. I was the one always in the front line of things.

“I would say I’m very lucky to be here.”

He performed with Will.i.am at the World Cup Kick-Off Concert

When Wavin’ Flag was originally released last year, it told K’Naan’s story, including the optimistic chorus, sung from his younger self’s point of view: “When I get older, I will be stronger, they’ll call me freedom, just like a waving flag.”

The song, originally an album track, is “about facing the odds and coming out of darkness – despair to hope, that kind of transition and transformation”, K’Naan says.

After it was selected by Coca Cola to be their theme for the tournament in South Africa, lyrics about “so many wars, settling scores” were replaced by lines about champions taking the field, and others about rejoicing in the beautiful game.

But the message and spirit of the song still shine through, the artist believes.

“The happier version contains some kind of melodic power that still pulls people into feeling something other than just a regular, mundane pop song,” he says.

“I think it’s a curtain opener, it takes you back to the original, and maybe because of the original you might find other songs.”

Painful experience

The memorable chorus is still there and the song is on the A list of both BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2, meaning it has heavy airplay in the UK.

“Before that, what do you hear?” K’Naan asks. “You don’t hear songs that have any message at all on popular radio. I think it’s still miles more of a message-based song than what it’s playing alongside right now.”

I just don’t want to have been responsible for people being hurt because they wanted to see their Somali singer get on stage – K’Naan

Much of the rapper’s music, he says, reflects the violence and anarchy of his home country. “That experience is what defined me. It made me the person I am today.”

While some American rappers glamorise the gangsta life, K’Naan writes with the painful experience of having seen friends shot dead.

“Some of my songs are more violent than a 50 Cent song, but it’s just a different perspective of looking at violence,” he says. “We look at it from two different lenses.”

If life as a teenager in North America was a new start, it was far from easy.

“I fell into the traps of immigrant life and economic disempowerment, living in metro housing projects and dealing with all the trouble that come along with that,” he explains.

“My friends there in my teenage years started either going to prison or getting killed. That was the real wake-up, when I had lost quite a few of my friends in North America.”

His musical career began to take off at the age of 20 after he delivered a spoken word piece to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees criticising the UN’s Somali aid missions.

In the audience was Senegalese superstar Youssou N’Dour, who was impressed enough to take K’Naan under his wing.

Fans killed

Despite being a cause for celebration in Africa, the World Cup gives further cause for concern in Somalia, where Islamist militants have put a ban on watching matches because such sports, along with pop music, are deemed un-Islamic.

Two people were killed in a house where people were watching a game last weekend, and militants have warned other football fans that they will be publicly flogged, or worse.

“That’s a pretty sore spot for me,” says K’Naan, who waved his country’s flag at the star-studded pre-tournament concert in Johannesburg.

“I’d heard that some people were executed for watching it. It really hurt me because so many Somalis around the world were tuned in to that thing because of my performance, as well as their love for the game.

“It was such a proud moment because I brought out the Somali flag onto the stage in front of millions of people. That’s the thing that so many of them are talking about.

“I just don’t want to have been responsible for people being hurt because they wanted to see their Somali singer get on stage or something. That’s been a real tough thing for me to even think about. It might not be true at all but it’s a thought.”

Reference Link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment_and_arts/10342791.stm

Courtesy
BBC News