FAQs

What would be different about GFP?

Greenwich Free Primary would provide an outstanding education for our pupils by promising, for example:

1. High aspiration: GFP will support and challenge our pupils to aim high - and fulfil those ambitions - because we believe every pupil can succeed.

2. Enjoyment and excitement: GFP will create a fun and exciting school environment that will nurture our pupils and engage them with learning.

3. Rapid development: GFP will support and stretch pupils through great teaching and a challenging curriculum, to ensure they make excellent progress and build the skills and knowledge that will thoroughly prepare them for success at secondary school and beyond.

4. Rounded character: GFP will foster the creativity, confidence, courage and curiosity of every pupil - to help each of them flourish as a rounded, inquisitive individual, passionate about learning.

5. Strong community: GFP will create a calm, secure and stimulating community of which our pupils feel proud: one that they care about, and that cares about them.

Would GFP harm other primary schools in Greenwich?

This is a common concern, but we don't think so: no. If it is launched, we hope the Greenwich Free Primary School will work with other Greenwich primary schools - and the Local Authority - to provide more outstanding primary school places for the increasing number of Greenwich children. We would offer a distinctive, complementary model, including:

• teaching pupils in smaller, more personal groups;

• operating a longer school day (from 0830 to 1630);

• offering a rigorous curriculum that by Year 2 will include learning a foreign language, computer science, philosophy and science, alongside more traditional primary school subjects; and

• prioritising our primary pupils for admission to GFS, ensuring that they transition seamlessly to secondary school.

So we hope we would simply be giving local parents the choice to decide what type of school they would like their children to attend.

We would receive the same funding, per pupil, as any other school: we'd just be offering parents a different way for the state to invest in their children.

You're still a very new secondary school. Why are you thinking about starting a new school now?

Yes, GFS is a very new school, but we've also seen that our model has proven very popular, quickly. There is currently a high level of primary school need in Greenwich, and we're only just beginning the planning now - it would be September 2015 before we open. GFS took two years to plan before it opened, so we think it's sensible to get thinking early!

Would having a primary school next door disrupt the local area?

No. We would take every effort to ensure disruption to the local area is minimised. For example, we would stagger our start and finish times so that there are no more children arriving or leaving at the same time.

We also hope that by providing a Primary School in the local area, we would be giving even more to the local community, so that parents can choose the distinctive GFS model for their children right from the age of 4 up to the age of 18.

Would adding a new primary school harm the development of the secondary school?

No. There is a new steering committee in place to develop GFP, working with two Governors from GFS. This means that all the development of the GFP would be delivered by people who have the time and capacity to do this work, without detracting from the current running of GFS. Of course, all decisions on the development of the new primary are being taken in conjunction with the Trustees and Governing Body.

If the primary school were established, it would be a separate school, under the overall leadership of a single Multi-Academy Trust containing both GFS and GFP. Both schools would report to a single, small Governing Body overseeing the site and finances. But there would be separate Primary and Secondary Local Governing Bodies, focussing on education standards.