All Well at West London Free School
Spoke to friends yesterday who have children at the school. They were still very happy with the school and laughed off suggestions that anybody was even thinking of taking their children out. They felt if there were departures the places would be snapped up. It was recognised that it was a shame that the first head left but they felt that the replacement was always struggling and his background wasn't ideal for a school which was stressing its academic credentials.They acknowledged that Toby Young was difficult to work with and demanding but that generally didn't bother parents as the school wouldn't exist without him. The problems over premises weren't felt to be a major issue as the school never pretended that everything was totally in place in this regard and there was always going to be a need to improvise for the first generation of children entering the school.They were very cross about complaints about the cost of the new school premises. One of the parents had worked on a project for a prep school in West London which had cost much than £9mn and was much smaller than the WLFS site. It was pointed out that as land and buildings are expensive in this part of London if you are going to say that amount of money can't be spent then you wouldn't ever have any new schools at all.One of the parents said the negative press about the school had made the school a tighter knit community and believed that its detractors were mainly 'public school educated Guardian readers' who believed the important thing about state schools is that they should be equally rubbish for everyone.
Ellen Kearney ● 4001d2 Comments