When Academies and Free Schools were announced, the prospect of freedom was alluring — to an extent.

On 1 October 2010 I wrote:

That was in the context of the promised forthcoming freedom from the National Curriculum for Academies and Free Schools. As someone asked in a conference I attended, if the National Curriculum is the best of the best, why will some schools be given the freedom to ignore it? The speaker from the Department for Education had no coherent answer.

I think, though, you have to think of the context of the time. We’d had to endure the National Strategies, my area of expertise being the Key Stage 3 Strategy for ICT. The lessons were not exactly scripted, but were so detailed that they were not far short of that. The idea of freedom from DfE-stipulated curricula seemed like a breath of fresh air.

However, being a cynic, and having been around the block a few times, my enthusiasm was not completely without doubts. You can read the full post here:

Two cheers for Academies