Free schools are an interesting idea but the government needs to be very careful to make sure that educational standards improve for all children and that the whole community benefits.

Authors Avatar

Eva Mathew

“Free schools” are an interesting idea but the government needs to be very careful to make sure that educational standards improve for all children and that the whole community benefits.

The idealogy behind “free Schools “are that they are non-profit making, independent, state-funded schools. They are able to choose what subjects they choose for their pupils to study and have many less restrictions imposed on them on how they choose to allocate their finances. For this very reason free schools would be varied in their nature as they would not be forced to follow for example the national curriculum. They are not defined by size or location: there is not a single type of free school or a single reason for setting them up. Free schools could be either primary or secondary schools. They could be located in traditional school buildings or appropriate community spaces such as office buildings or church halls. They could be set up by a wide range of proposers – including charities, universities, businesses, educational groups, visionary teachers or committed parents – who want to make a difference to the educational landscape. They might be needed because there simply are not enough school places in a local area and children have to travel too far to the nearest school. Free schools are not academically selective and open to children of all abilities.

School is a defining factor in our lives and also promote a shared sense of community which is important as cohesive communities are generally more happy and safe than uncohesive ones - there is no discrimination or segregation and they nurture a shared set of beliefs and values and goals, living together in harmony and mutual respect. An example of a community that lacks this is Oldham – in which the races, Asians and whites were segregated and this triggered violent race riots. This happened due to the immense divide between Asian and White communities and their inability to mix and appreciate one another. This event made me think that this was very bad for the community and did nothing but encourage racial segregation. Looking at the footage of the riots of 2001 it is clear that situation could have been easily avoided had everyone learnt to appreciate one another.

Community cohesion is about ensuring that all people from different backgrounds and communities feel they belong to the place in which they live.  We cannot realise our ambitions by living in isolation to one another, it must be as a united city, where the differences of race, colour, and religion are embraced.  A sense of community cohesion as we grow up makes us happier in general and encourages us to be unprejudiced and non-racist. Our distinctive character is developed early on in life and to be encouraged to mix with other people with different beliefs and religions helps promote a safer and on the whole a more happier and strong community. We start school within the first few years of our lives and being mixed with different people at this institution endorses a stronger community. We spend a good part of a decade at school so there is no doubt that school will be largely responsible for our values and beliefs, as well as our personality. Depending on what school we go to we are thrust into a shared community and we learn to get along and share beliefs. As stated in the Source material, “Being part of a community helps us develop an identity – a sense of who we are”.

Join now!

An uncohesive community has exactly the opposite effect, and children growing up in an uncohesive community can grow up to have negative views and not feel like they belong and the can feel like they do not have a stake in society and being able to join in and influence decisions that affect their lives.

When David Cameron and Nick Clegg (leaders of the Conservative party and the Liberal Democrat party) were elected to form a coalition government in 2010, one of the Conservatives policies were “the Big Society” which was apparently based on a model of Balsall Heath – ...

This is a preview of the whole essay