Support Waltham Forest's local community schools

Our excellent local schools are under threat from four proposed “Free Schools”.

As the population in Waltham Forest grows, it is very likely that we will need more secondary school places as our primary school children get older.

Our local community schools have a lot going for them.

• They are open to all our children
• Our school playgrounds are a meeting place for parents and children from all walks of life
• Our schools are accountable to us because they are accountable to our Councillors who we elect
• Our schools work closely with the Council – the London Borough of Waltham Forest – to make sure the needs of every child are met
• Our schools work together, providing opportunities that small, competing schools cannot
Four new Free Schools are being planned for Waltham Forest

Why does that matter to you and your children?

• Free Schools can choose:

1. not to teach the National Curriculum
2. not to follow fair admissions procedures
3. not to employ trained and qualified teachers
4. not to follow hard-won guidelines on healthy eating

• Free Schools are not accountable to the local community. Instead they are accountable to their sponsor and to the Department for Education.
• We all pay for Free Schools but we have no say in whether we want them, where they are set up, or how they are run. We have never been asked whether we want these schools.
• Free Schools will be bad for our local schools. They will take scarce resources away from our community schools. They will compete to attract the pupils they want which is not fair on our children and will create divisions within our community.
• It matters what school your neighbour’s children go to because they are your children’s friends.

Support our existing community schools:

We believe that the taxpayers’ money that is being used to set up Free Schools could and should be spent on our existing schools.

Waltham Forest Council is working on a better solution to the future shortage of secondary school places by expanding our excellent existing schools. It’s not too late to stop the Free Schools by showing our support for our schools and our Council.

Please add your name to our petition.