Toby Young Toby Young

In praise of free schools

Congratulations to all those free schools who got their GCSE results this morning. We don’t yet have the full picture, but early reports are good.

Top marks to Tauheedul Islam Boys’ High School in Blackburn, a free school that opened in 2012. Ninety-five per cent of its pupils achieved five A* to C grades in their GCSEs, including English and maths, a metric known as ‘5A*–CEM’. To put this in context, last year’s 5A*–CEM national average was 56.1 per cent.

Another school that has done well is Dixons Kings Academy in Bradford. It was one of the first 24 free schools to open in 2011 – it was originally called King Science Academy – and was taken over by the Dixons Academy chain after financial irregularities were brought to light by a whistleblower. Sixty-seven per cent of its pupils achieved 5A*–CEM.

Congratulations also to Bedford Free School, which was co-founded by Mark Lehain and his wife in the teeth of ferocious opposition from the Labour-controlled local authority. After a disappointing set of GCSEs last year – 57 per cent 5A*–CEM – its results have jumped to 66 per cent.

The school I helped set up, the West London Free School, posted its first set of GCSE results this year and they, too, are good. Seventy-six per cent of our pupils got 5A*–CEM, a great credit to them, as well as to Hywel Jones, the headteacher, and the school’s teaching staff.

We did very well at the top end, with 37 per cent of all GCSEs being marked A* or A. That figure should put us in the top 50 non-selective state schools in England, based on last year’s data.

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