The Trustees are grateful for Luke’s work to date and wish him well in his future endeavours. The news comes as Secretary of State for Education, The Rt Hon Gavin Williamson MP, has indicated that free schools are one of his top three priorities for this Government.
Unity Howard, incoming Director at NSN, said:
"The widening attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers is unacceptable. The future of opportunity, social justice and pupils in school right now will depend on our ability to tackle this issue head on. We must open more high performing new free schools, in areas that have been left behind, to address these imbalances.
"Many parents who home school do so well, and should have nothing to fear from a quality check to ensure their children are receiving a decent standard of education. For the minority who do not or who are using home schooling as a pretext for sending children to illegal unregistered schools, local councils need to know what is going on and be able to take action quickly.
"79% of academies and free schools are already Good or Outstanding and highly trusted by parents. With over 50% of pupils now in academies the time is right to broaden public confidence in academy trusts. Academy trusts are the single legal entity responsible for the education of all pupils in their schools. The quality of scrutiny matters most.
Scholarship funding is available for these courses until at least March 2020. This means that any schools in category 5 and 6 areas – where children make the least progress and have poorest access to high-quality schools – are eligible for fully funded NPQ places at any level. It also means that all staff in a multi-academy trust which has at least one school in a category 5 or 6 area would be eligible for a fully funded place, across the trust.
"It’s fantastic to see almost 1.9 million more children in Good or Outstanding schools since 2010. The free school and academies reforms have transformed education and championed social justice across the country and the 444 open free schools have revitalised communities and delivered real opportunity for young people.
"It’s disappointing the Labour Against Private Schools campaign has mistakenly identified free schools alongside private and grammar schools. At NSN, we entirely agree on the importance of making sure all children have access to outstanding comprehensive schools. No primary or secondary free school selects on the basis of ability.
“It is no secret teacher recruitment and retention is one of the biggest issues facing the sector, but the fact that it is schools in disadvantaged areas struggling to recruit the most is particularly pernicious. If we are serious about tackling social injustice then we must do more to ensure our best teachers are placed in the schools that need them most. We agree with the Sutton Trust’s recommendation that pupil premium money would be well spent on recruiting and retaining great teachers.
