Could other schools be at threat after DfE described two-form entry model of secondary sections of two free schools as “unviable”?

An institution which has become one of the free schools movement’s most high-profile success stories, and another at which ministers appear to have thrown many millions of pounds, are operating on a scale not much larger than that seemingly deemed as “unviable” by civil servants in relation to two former Steiner academies.

This is the upshot of fresh data analysis by Education Uncovered which appears to show up a lack of consistency in decision-making on free schools, which can lurk under the radar given that the basis on which such moves are made is generally kept secret by the government.

Education Uncovered has also now seen documents from the trust which has taken over the Steiner academies, which suggested that small secondary schools needed cross-subsidy to continue to exist.

Last week, Education Uncovered reported on a Department for Education move to force an academy trust to “review” the futures of two small secondary schools because they were not “viable”.

The DfE advised the Avanti Schools Trust, before handing it in November three former free schools which had been operating under the alternative Rudolf Steiner ethos, that it would only do so if the trust “reviewed” their operations.