BBC Agenda Against Free Schools

[Teddy Bear]

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Free schools are above average, according to Ofsted – but not according to the BBC (shock!)

By Toby Young

Michael Gove has written an article for today's Guardian in which he points out that the first 24 free schools are "outperforming the rest of the country", according to Ofsted. This is a reference to Ofsted's verdict on the first 24 free schools, all of which have now been inspected and 75 per cent of which have been judged good or outstanding. This is a huge vote of confidence in the free schools programme and all of us involved, particularly Michael Gove, should be proud. I'm pleased to say the West London Free School – which I co-founded two years ago – was judged good with outstanding features by Ofsted. Not bad for a school that was dismissed by the Honourable Tristram Julian William Hunt as “a vanity project for yummy mummies in West London”.

Unfortunately, the BBC has chosen to downplay this achievement in an online report today, pointing out that only 75 per cent of free schools have been rated good or outstanding by Ofsted, compared with 79 per cent of all state schools in England. By that measure, free schools are below average.

The reason this is misleading is because the BBC is using all English state schools as a benchmark, when the vast majority were inspected under Ofsted’s old, much more liberal regime. Before Sir Michael Wilshaw became the chief inspector at the beginning of last year, it was far easier for a school to get a good or outstanding rating. Under Wilshaw's new, much tougher regime, by contrast, far fewer state schools in England have met this target – 62 per cent of those inspected since he took over as opposed to 79 per cent.

Given that all the 24 free schools that have been inspected to date have been inspected under the new regime, that should be the point of comparison, not the one the BBC is using. By that more accurate measure, Michael Gove is right – free schools have been judged above average by Ofsted.

This isn't the first time BBC News has been guilty of publishing a misleading report about the present government's education reforms. Earlier this week, Guido Fawkes flagged up a BBC story that reported the withering verdict of a "university think tank" on the government's new teacher training scheme, presenting the think tank in question as a wholly impartial source. In fact, it's a Labour front. The reporter on that story, Hannah Richardson, has form. I wrote a blog post last year, pointing out a similar sleight of hand by Richardson, this time presenting an opinion piece by a couple of Left-wing academics condemning free schools as the verdict of a university "research" study.

So congratulations to free schools for getting such an excellent end-of-term report from Ofsted. As for the BBC, I'm afraid the conclusion is "must try harder".

[Teddy Bear]

Toby Young at the Telegraph with another article about how the BBC are completely distorting the facts related to Free Schools.

I have to say that it's not an area that I'm familiar with, and I don't pretend to be aware of the ins and outs concerning them. For there to be a bias there has to be a reason for it, and this particular one is not readily apparent to me, basically because I don't know enough about it.

The only one that might account for their bias in my ignorance is that possibly Free Schools don't have the same curriculum as mainstream schools, and might actually be giving children a real education. It's fair to assume the BBC rely on left wing teachers to make sure future generations will be inculcated into the way of thinking the BBC wants them to have.
And/or that teachers might not be from the NUT teachers union. So perhaps the union is getting the BBC to demonise Free Schools.

The origin of the word education is from Latin and means to 'bring out from within'. If schools are doing their job as intended they would be helping students develop their own inner tools to go through life with. As we know, schools devote most of its purpose to fill their students brains with mostly useless information for their future - the exact opposite of the meaning of education.

The BBC's anti-free schools bias is becoming laughable

By Toby Young

The National Audit Office's report on free schools is generally favourable, though you wouldn't know it if you relied on this article on the BBC's website.

The NAO report found that the average cost of establishing a new free school is £6.6m, compared to an average cost of creating a new school under the last government of £25m. "New approaches have led to much lower average construction costs than in previous programmes," it says. Yet the BBC chose to go with the following headline: "Free schools costs trebled to £1.5b."

The report found that 87 per cent of free school primary places are in areas that have "high or severe need" for additional places, with 70 per cent of all free school places falling into that category. The BBC reported this as follows: "The NAO said… many schools were not in areas of need."
The report says that 18 of the 25 free schools inspected by Ofsted so far have been rated "Good" or "Outstanding". That's a hit rate of 72 per cent, well above the national average of 64 per cent since Ofsted's tough new inspection regime was introduced. But you wouldn't know that from reading the BBC's account, which simply records the fact that two free schools "have been judged to be providing an inadequate standard of education".

The report says that 86 per cent of the places created by the 174 free schools that have opened so far have been filled. The BBC ignores that and quotes "Public Accounts Committee chairwoman Margaret Hodge" (without identifying her as a Labour MP): "Over £1bn will have been spent on the free schools programme by March 2014, yet on opening, one in four desks at free schools were empty."

The general impression created by the BBC article, underlined by its grotesque misrepresentation of the NAO report, is that the government is wasting money on free schools in areas where they're not needed while ignoring the critical shortage of places elsewhere. In fact, not only are 70 per cent of all free schools places in areas of "high or severe need" but the government is spending an additional £5bn on new school places up to 2015. That's more than double what the previous government spent on creating new school places in a comparable time period.

The author of this shockingly misleading article is Hannah Richardson who has a long track record of inaccurate reporting when it comes to free schools. I've blogged about Richardson's Left-wing bias twice before (see here and here) and it was picked up on the Guido Fawkes website here.
Isn't it about time James Harding, the BBC News Director, told her to be a little more even-handed?

[Teddy Bear]

This article in the Spectator makes it clearer for me as to why the BBC is involved in twisting the truth on Free Schools.

The BBC’s headline claims ‘free school costs budget trebled to £1.5bn, says report.’ But the NAO report states that ‘many new schools have been established quickly and at relatively low cost’. At £6.6 million per school, free schools are being delivered at a fraction of the costs of Labour’s Building Schools for the Future scheme which cost £25 million per school.

The Free schools perform better and do it cheaper than Labour can do it.
That would explain it

Ignore Margaret Hodge and the BBC – free schools are working

Elizabeth Truss

Today’s NAO report on free schools has recognised the ‘clear progress’ we have made opening 174 schools in three years with significantly lower costs than Labour’s school programmes. But, as Isabel Hardman, Toby Young and Policy Exchange’s Jonathan Simons have pointed out, instead of reading the report the BBC and PAC Chairwoman Margaret Hodge have chosen to ignore the facts.

The BBC’s headline claims ‘free school costs budget trebled to £1.5bn, says report.’ But the NAO report states that ‘many new schools have been established quickly and at relatively low cost’. At £6.6 million per school, free schools are being delivered at a fraction of the costs of Labour’s Building Schools for the Future scheme which cost £25 million per school. As the NAO’s report recognises, we have also cut the cost of building a new school by around 45% compared to previous school building programmes.

The BBC also claims that ‘schools were not always where places were most needed’ and Margaret Hodge has said ‘The Department has got to be much more rigorous about how it assesses applications for free schools and prioritises need and value for money.’ But again, the NAO confirms that 7 in 10 free schools are opening in areas facing a shortage of school places. And we are also spending £5 billion on new school places in areas where there is a shortage – more than double the amount spent by Labour over an equivalent four year period. Labour did nothing to create new primary school places – in fact they cut 200,000 places in the middle of a baby boom. Yet again, Labour have the nerve to blame this Government for a problem they created and can now do nothing but snipe from the sidelines about our successes.

It’s especially bizarre to see Margaret Hodge attacking free schools when last year she called for £25 million to set up a free school in her constituency. Now she says she only supported a free school because her area needs more places. But the Department for Education has provided £140 million for extra school places in Barking, double the £66 million Labour gave over an equivalent period. This £140 million can be spent on expanding any type of school – not just academies or free schools.

Clearly Margaret Hodge agrees – or at least she did last year – with parents across the country who recognise the strong discipline and teaching excellence free schools deliver. She said she wanted a free school because children ‘deserve the best possible education.’ She was right to recognise the high quality education provided by free schools. As this report says, three-quarters of the free schools inspected have been rated good or outstanding and the longer they have been open the more popular they have become.

That’s why we want to open many more high quality free schools. So that every child has the chance to go to an excellent local school and receive, as Margaret Hodge says, ‘the best possible education.’