Wanted: School provider progress for free schools

Field of Dreams - Build it and they will come

Wanted:

The NSN to provide a forum to work through the School Provider model

Wanted:

Progressive Education Alliance

In a previous post I argued for more school providers to step up, for Free Schools groups to work with to deliver their vision for a progressive education. The NSN guidance notes say that the provider model is “where  the Academy Trust outsources either back-office functions such as HR, or the day-to-day running of the school, to private companies, whilst retaining strategic oversight of the school’s direction.”

Although our free school proposal for a new secondary school in Oxford has been working with a private company who would like to bid to be our full provider, if approved; our group wants more choice in the ‘market’ of provider – and especially from those with expertise in educational innovation.

Two events this week have coalesced my thinking into a clearer view of what we need.

On Monday, I was part of a team from the ONSchool team who went to a mock interview at the NSN, in preparation in case we are called by the DfE in March. We were drilled on all aspects of our bid and, somewhat surprisingly, we enjoyed it! We need to work on some areas, but we felt that we did pretty well. That said, one area that the panel pushed us on was our decision to opt for the provider model – and how this mapped to our vision and ethos for an innovative local school. They asked some tough questions such as about lines of responsibility between the school provider and the role of the Principal. We had answers, but based on our best guess as there is no clear guidance on how this model can work. There is not enough clarity in the advice about the provider model from the DfE or NSN, and no one to help us work it out. There is no real framework for organisations to work to or precedent to learn from. After the interview, and after the lovely feedback from the panel, I made a plea – which the expert panelists seemed to agree with (though were careful not to say too clearly in front of their paymasters)- for  the NSN to step up and provide a forum to sort this out!

I will be following up with Katharine Howell, Head of Advisory Services at the NSN, about this. I know that the NSN are nervous of stepping into this area, yet more and more groups want this advice! All they need to do is provide the forum for this to be discussed and worked through… right? So…

NSN – Please provide the support to free school groups wanting to follow the school provider model that we desperately need – and soon!

Ben Gibbs from Restart-Ed

The second event was meeting Ben Gibbs, from restart-ed, an education consultancy. Ben is also on the board of Whole Education. I challenged Ben, with his hat as board member at Whole Education and position having worked closely with the RSA and other similar orgs, to answer the question as to why none of these organisations, with such progressive values, have yet stepped forward into supporting free schools more directly. We need groups like these, to balance the involvement of churches and for-profits, with a values based education.

In doing so, I expressed clearly what I wanted to see and Ben helped me to tease this out!

The Progressive Education Alliance – A School Provider for Free Schools

• I want the progressive organisations involved in education to provide an umbrella company with shared values (such as Whole Education, RSA, Innovation Unit, Cooperative College, ASDAN)
• To have associates and staff able to add capacity and capability to a free school
• To collate the wider pool of expert innovators in education into an associate programme
• To provide the channel to the wealth of research, best practice and support ‘out there’
• Make sustainable CPD available and frameworks to support iteration in delivery
• To bring value for money solutions for technology rather than only proprietary systems
• To find the best suppliers for progressive education (from Catering to Awarding bodies)
• To offer HR and back office function
• To provide a channel for partnerships with charities and local bodies
• To be founded as a cooperative
• This organisation should NOT seek to impose anything on a school trust – but to provide the education expertise, the capacity and capability to run the school (as and when needed).

Ultimately, free school groups have a clear vision and ethos for their local solution, and should be ultimately accountable for the school. However, we all need help and even the best provider cannot do it all and will bring in help. Great schools are all about an empowered network, so why not just make that explicit! We need more choice – so let’s create it – or at least provide the basis for other to do so.

I propose a ‘round table’ meeting to discuss this and, if you want to come, or have comments, please let me know, below.