Thoughts on the ground: free school leaders come together

The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) (Ewan-M via Flickr cc)

Last Tuesday evening a small group of about 10 people gathered over sparkling water and wine at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). In this relaxed setting these individuals, who ranged from parents, to free school proposers, to those involved in existing free schools, animatedly discussed the movement that unites them.

The informal meeting was organised by computer scientist Philip Moore, whose work to support education using technology often brings him into contact with free school leaders. However, Moore explained that he often finds it difficult to connect to the right people and is surprised by the lack of networking within what is essentially a grass-roots movement. Consequently, he started a group on Meetup called Free School Leaders, which aims to “bring together the leaders of the free school movement so that they can meet in person, make friends, share their ideas, solve problems together, and discuss the burning issues of the day”.

Currently, the group has 34 members and Tuesday evening was its inaugural meeting with a guest speaker in the form of Helen Humphry, the project leader for Chichester Free School.