Partially borrowed from Sweden: analysing the ‘free school’ experiment in England

About the webinar

In this webinar, Rob Higham and Golo Henseke present their research on free schools in England and their impact on neighbouring schools.

They start by noting how free school policy in England has been partially and symbolically borrowed from Sweden and the USA. They then examine the different ways in which new free schools may affect neighbouring schools, including changes in student enrolment, perceived competition and how neighbouring schools respond to new competition.

The webinar also explores whether the opening of a free school is associated with changes in student attainment in neighbouring schools and with increased or decreased social segregation in the surrounding area.

The presentation draws in part on the report The Free Schools Experiment: Analysing the impacts of English free schools on neighbouring schools. Read the report on the UCL Discovery website (PDF).

The webinar will be held in English and is open to anyone interested.

About the organizers

The Collegium for the Sociology of Education provides a forum for scholarly discussion of the social, cultural and political dimensions of education and teaching.

The School Development and Leadership research environment focuses on what teachers and school leaders do when creating educational practices that support children’s and students’ development and learning.