Innovative Free Schools

The Innovation Unit has started a new project to find a way to increase the amount of innovative schools opening in the UK. I am pleased to say that they have asked me to be involved, partly as this project has come about after a series of conversations and some gentle lobbying following a blog post I wrote earlier this year.

Following the rejection by the DfE of the free school proposal I have been involved in for Oxford, ONSchool, to open in 2014, I have found that there are many other groups, like ours, who felt that the process was tougher for those who proposed a school with particular features, such as project based learning. Whether this is true or not, our story was written up in The Guardian as part of a deeper questioning of whether the government really wants innovation at all.  Groups like mine needed to share and support each other better, and find the help they needed. I was not the only one who felt that way.

David Jackson, Partner at the Innovation Unit was also enthused about the potential of free schools to help transform the wider system, and he will be leading this project for the Innovation Unit. So, what will we be doing over the next few months:

• Firstly, I will be gathering Innovative Free Schools (IFS), to share experiences, and find out more about what they need. If you are involved in a free school group that seeks to open a school in 2015 that has features such as project based learning, please get in touch.
• I will also be talking to organisations who might want to work with free school groups, school providers and charities, to help connect them together. We will be selecting partners who have a proven, innovative model of education.
• Finally, we are looking for organisations who might want to support The Innovation Unit in this work and, again, I’d welcome any contact on this matter.

Beyond that, David and I will be building a network of groups and schools that have opened, to share experiences and support each other. More on this soon.

Clearly, there is a lot to be done to clear up what we mean by Innovative, but the Innovation Unit are the right people to be leading on this.

We hope that this work will pave the way for more of the change that many of us feel is long overdue to take place in more of our communities and for more children to get the education for their futures that they deserve.