Is Jezza finally coming round on the most successful education policy in years? Earlier this week he attended the opening of a new free school in North London, lavishing the City of London Academy Highgate Hill with praise for its focus on arts and music. Highgate Hill is the fourth free school to be opened by the City of London Academy Trust. A welcome shift from Labour now free schools are out-performing all other types of school with 5-7-year-olds and 16-18-year-olds and are joint best on progress between 11 and 16. Back in 2015 Jez was going round implying he wanted to abolish them. He likes free schools when they’re helping kids in his back yard…

Labour’s manifesto pledges to scrap the free schools programme, committing to not “waste money on inefficient free schools”. Not much of a surprise, though it is not ideal for the Labour candidate in Bexhill and Battle. Christine Bayliss is a former DfE mandarin who now runs a consultancy advising on setting up new free schools. Her company CBECS helps new academies and free schools set up:

“Whether you need to provide evidence of stakeholder engagement for your free school application, community support to enable a funding agreement to be signed or parent and stakeholder support for your academy plans, C:BECS can help.  We will develop a tailored solution that not only meets your needs but your budget too.”

Almost as if Christine knows her company is safe…