Free Schools - November 2010

Free schools and their linked companies

Name of Free School / Age Range / Location / Name of Limited Company of school or sponsor / Date of incorporation / Comment
Bedford and Kempston Free School / Secondary / Bedford Borough / Bedford and Kempston Free School Ltd / 06.08.10 / Teacher and parent led group The school will focus on the “Stem" subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths).
The Childcare Company / Primary / Slough / Child Care Company (Old Windsor) Ltd / 18.02.08 / The school will have a Christian ethos. The company behind it is a child care training company
Discovery New School / Primary / West Sussex / Discovery New School / 08.07.10 / Montessori school .
The Free School Norwich / Primary / Norfolk / The Free School Norwich / 14.10.10 / The school plans to have a two-week holiday every six weeks and a four-week holiday in August, with extended school activities for children all year round.
Haringey Jewish Primary School / Primary / LB Haringey / Muswell Hill Jewish Primary School / 13.07.10 / Jewish school in Muswell Hill.
I-Foundation Primary School / Secondary / Leicester / IFoundation / 25.05.04 / Hindu school.
Accounts to 31/8/09 show turnover of £429,952. Plans for future periods included "to build the first Hindu Secondary School in either North West London or Leicester".
King’s Science Academy / Secondary / Bradford / Hartley Property Trust Ltd
(“King’s Science Academy is kindly supported by Alan Lewis CBE, Chairman of the Hartley Group” King’s Science Academy website) / 13.10.47 / The group behind the proposal has said it is driven by a vision of liberating inner city children from "ghettoisation".Sajid Hussain, a science teacher and assistant Head teacher who hopes to lead the new secondary school, said: "We hope to teach good manners. We're looking at a sense of responsibility, social conduct, sitting down and dining. Independent schools are quite good at this kind of stuff."
Alan Lewis made his money in the textile industry but is now mainly involved in property deals in the UK, Spain and Russia. He is reportedly worth £300-£400M.
Hartley Property Trust Ltd has 13 subsidiaries, mostly engaged in property investment. Accounts for the year to 31/3/09 show turnover of £298M, pre-tax profit of £87M, the company is owned by Hartley Investment Trust Ltd.
Consultants Cambridge Education are working with the proposers. If the government approves its business case, the consultants would arrange procedures for admissions, curriculum, staff, premises and finance
Mill Hill Jewish Primary School / Primary / LB Barnet / London Jewish Forum / 24.02.06 / Jewish school
Nishkam Education Trust / All-though / Birmingham / Nishkam Civic Association / 21.02.02 / Sikh school.
North Westminster Free School (ARK) / Primary / Westminster / Absolute Return for Kids (ARK) / 13.11.02 / ARK's activities in the UK include a network of nine Academies. It aims to provide places for 12,000 pupils by 2012. ARK describes itself as "an international charity whose purpose is to transform children's lives". Its accounts to 31/8/09 show turnover of £23.9M with a surplus of £4.1M for the year.
ARK was set up by the hedge-fund millionaire Arpad "Arki" Busson. Busson was replaced as chair of Ark by Stanley Fink in 2009. Fink became treasurer of the Conservative Party in October 2010. The Sunday Times Rich List estimated his personal fortune at £116M. He is a major donor to the Conservative Party.
On 29 November, Lord Myners was appointed to Ark’s board of trustees. Myners, who started his career as a teacher, is a former chairman of Marks & Spencer, Myners was headhunted by ex-Prime Minister Gordon Brown to be City minister in 2008. He became the centre of controversy after allegedly agreeing to a “compromise deal” over Sir Fred Goodwin’s pension, allowing the former RBS boss to increase his pension pot by £8m.
Two ARK Trustees are Directors of the New Schools Network which receives Government money to support Free School applications. They are Baroness Sally Morgan, Tony Blair’s former Director of Government Relations; and Amanda Spielman.
Priors Marston and Priors Hardwick School / Primary / Warwickshire / Priors Marston and Priors Hardwick School Ltd / 02.01.96 / A school with a Christian ethos, which already exists and is run through private donations after the local authority decided it should close.
Rivendale Free School / Primary / Hammersmith and Fulham / Rivendale Education Ltd / 25.08.10 / A primary school which states that it will have no religious ethos and offer an alternative to existing faith schools in the area.
St. Luke’s School / Primary / Camden / St Luke’s School Ltd / 15.07.10 / Anglican school. Led by Penny Roberts an education psychologist and former teacher. Will operate out of St Luke’s church hall, Hampstead initially with 15 children
Stour Valley Community School / Secondary / Suffolk / Stour Valley Educational Trust Ltd / 17.04.10 / Plans to have an extended school day
West London Free School / Secondary / Hammersmith and Fulham / West London Free School Foundation Trust / 22.06.10 / Steering group led by journalist Toby Young. Curriculum will include compulsory Latin to age 14 and a compulsory GCSE in either Latin or classical civilisation.
Wormholt North Hammersmith Free School / Primary / Hammersmith and Fulham / Absolute Return for Kids (ARK) / 13.11.02 / See info on Ark above.
The Free school will be known as Burlington Primary Academy)
Batley Grammar School, / 3-18 / Kirklees / Batley Grammar School Trustees Ltd / 18.7.07 / State funded grammar school until 1978 when it became a fee-paying independent school. One of its13 Directors, Margaret Bates, is a Conservative councillor in Kirklees.
Birkenshaw, Birstall and Gomersal Free School
(formerly referred to as the BBG Parents’ Alliance) / Secondary / Kirklees / BBGPA was formed in oppostion to a school reorganisation that would see the closure of Birkenshaw Middle School.
Bolingbroke Academy / Secondary with sixth form / LB Wandsworth / Absolute Return for Kids (ARK) / Bolingbroke Academy is a new secondary school with sixth form in south Battersea, planned to openon the site of the former Bolingbroke Hospital in September 2012.
(formerly referred to as the Neighbourhood Schools Campaign)
Cuckoo Hall Academy Free School, / Primary / LB Enfield / Cuckoo Hall Academy / 24.8.10 / Led by Cuckoo Hall school Head teacher Patricia Sowter but on a separate site to the existing school. Cuckoo Hall became one of the first primary Academies in Sept 2010.
Patricia Sowter is a director of the Foundation, Aided Schools and Academies National Association, a company limited by guarantee whose registered office is in Derby. It is organised into groupings of Heads, Clerks andGovernors. Its declared aim is "to promote autonomy for schools to enable them to raise standards for students".
Parents’ Voice / Secondary / Bristol / Parents Voice Ltd / 8.10.10 / Bristol City Council has secured the St. Ursula’s school site for the new school which will have a secular ethos. It will operate for a minimum of twelve months as Oasis School Westbury. The group state: “The fact that this site has now been secured for educational use rather than being sold off to the highest bidder is great news for Bristol and our community especially, and means one of the aims of Parents Voice i.e. to continue to have a school on the site has been realised.”
Rainbow Primary School, / Primary / Bradford / Asian Trade Link (Yorkshire) Ltd / 2.08.99 / Backed by Asian Trade Link, a non-or-profit group that provides careers, training and business start up advice.
The company filed abbreviated accounts for the year ended 31/3/10 which show net assets of £423,691. They contain a reference to Government Grants but no detail is given.
The company passed a resolution on 4/10/10 to delete the provision in the Memorandum of Association which prevented members of the Council of Management or Governing Body being appointed to any office of the Association paid by salary or fees.
Reading First Junior Free School / Junior school / Reading / CfBT with Friends of All Saints / Anglican school.
CfBT is a private educational consultancy and also an academy sponsor. Neil McIntosh, chief executive of CfBT, said he hoped the new free school would be the first of many for the organisation.
Sandbach School / Secondary / SandbachCrewe, Cheshire / Sandbach School / 28.1.08 / A boys’ school that has the unique status of being a state funded school “with independent status”. Accounts for the year to 31 March 2009 showed it received £3.9 million from Cheshire County Council.
Two of its 17 directors – Stella Veronica Furlong and Gillian Mary Merry are Conservative councillors on Cheshire East council.
Another of its directors, Stephen Neil Hodgkinson is also a director of an outfit called Access Christian Media.
Stoke-by-Nayland High School / Secondary / Stoke by Nayland, Suffolk / Stoke-By-Nayland-High-School / The group behind the proposal describes itself as a group of parents and friends of Stoke-By-Nayland Middle School who came together in December 2009 to try and keep a secondary school on the site of the existing middle school, once it is closed in 2013, under the Schools Organisation Review from Suffolk County council. They say their aim “was to preserve choice for parents and children, and stop a closure which we felt would attack a rural community with a (currently) exciting and vibrant economy.”

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