Controversial free schools could open in Merton next year, as two organisations reveal plans to build new classrooms outside of council control.
The planned institutions are a primary in Raynes Park and a combined primary, secondary and sixth form in Morden.
They are to be set up under the Government’s free schools programme – which gives parents, charities and businesses the chance to launch their own schools without the involvement of local councils.
The groups behind the schemes said they would boost standards and give families more choice when they open next September – but Merton Council’s cabinet member for education said he was “very, very suspicious” of the plans.
Both new schools still need Government approval before they can go ahead.
The man behind the Morden proposal said the fact only a third of pupils at the area’s only secondary, Bishopsford Arts College, left with five high GCSE passes including maths and English showed many children were being let down.
John Morahan said: “35 per cent is not exactly stunning – what does it say for [the pupil’s] prospects?”
The academic is chief executive of Yorkshire Nationwide Schools, which aims to open 17 schools across England by September next year.He said pupils at the new non-selective Morden school could be taught in groups organised by ability rather than age – and that the new institution might be spread over three or four different sites.
Mr Morahan also promised small class sizes and a strong focus on discipline and achievement.
He hoped the school would take in children at the beginning of the primary and secondary age groups in its first year. He added: “We are out to make life better and more positive for people’s children.”
The parents behind the Raynes Park plan are members of Doxa Deo, a South African-based Christian church which meets at the David Lloyd Centre in Raynes Park. The organisation has set up schools in South Africa in the last few years.
Ioannis Dekas, a pastor and member of the church’s new school steering group, said: “We would provide something different that could help address the dire need for educational institutions in the borough.”
This year Merton Council is set to provide hundreds of extra primary school places in a classroom expansion programme sparked by surging demand.
Mr Dekas said parents had hoped to open the school this year, but after narrowly missing a Government deadline were aiming for a September 2012 launch - ideally welcoming two classes of year 1 children as the school’s first pupils.
He said the parents were looking at a range of sites in Raynes Park, West Wimbledon or West Barnes.
Mr Dekas said the non-selective school would be run with a Christian ethos, but would welcome pupils with all faiths and none.
He said: “We would be an inclusive school - we want to serve the whole community, not just serve our needs.”
In Raynes Park on Friday, parent Sadie Netherell said: “We could definitely do with more good schools in Raynes Park. It’s a good idea but it would be better if government run state schools were better, parents have got enough on their plates. Schools should be run by teachers and professionals - I certainly wouldn’t want to set one up.
“I think it’s a good idea in principle because parents and people in the community should be more involved in their child’s school, but the kind that would set it up would be the same upper middle class people that would anyway.
“Disengaged parents now wouldn’t get involved anyway.”
And parent Jill Thompson said: “Raynes Park definitely needs more schools, they are all over subscribed and we don’t have enough. I would be interested in looking it to it.”
Peter Walker, the council’s cabinet member for education, said schools set up under the free school legislation did not offer the same guarantees for pupils, would be less closely monitored and were allowed to employ unqualified teachers.
He said most parents would be alarmed by the prospects of less well regulated schools. He added: “I’m very, very suspicious of any free schools.”
Mr Morahan said his organisation would only use fully qualified teachers.
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