Former Steiner free school sees pupil numbers fall by 36 per cent in nine months as trust board raises alarm about financial implications

Pupil numbers at two former Steiner free schools in the West Country appear to be continuing a vertiginous fall –leading the board of the academy trust which was controversially handed them less than 18 months ago to express “concern” about their “financial situation”.

Avanti Gardens school, in Bristol, saw its numbers halve in nine months over the period January to October 2020, while at Avanti Park, in Frome in Somerset, the roll reduced by almost a third over eight months.

The rolls were expected to shrink as both schools saw some year groups close last summer, as the trust running them sought to reduce overheads. However, pupil numbers are still substantially lower than would have been expected, even after taking this into account.The statistics, unveiled in separate freedom of information responses, seem to add to evidence that parents have been voting with their feet about a radical departure from the schools’ original ethos since they were taken over by the Avanti Schools Trust.

Pupil numbers seem key to challenges to the finances of the two schools and a third former Steiner academy now controlled by Avanti - with a warning set out in the minutes of a meeting last September that the government might have to cover any shortfall in cash for up to six years.

This saga appears to continue to raise fundamental questions about the nature of the free schools programme and its management by the government.