Creating your vision
March 2015
Growing schools
advice ¦ support ¦ ideas
Your vision
Your education vision comprises:
— Your rationale for the school – why it should be established
— Your vision statement – the short summary of what your
school will do
— Your ethos – the guiding principles that inform your school’s
approach
— Your outcomes – what success looks like
Most successful organisations will have these components. Sometimes these are called
‘mission, values and metrics’ rather than ‘vision statement, ethos and outcomes’ but the
fundamentals are the same.
Your vision will form the basis for all other decisions – the way you organise your
curriculum, staffing, how you allocate the budget, what premises are appropriate and so on.
A clear vision is the foundation of a strong application, and the Department for Education
(DfE) will not approve a school with a weak vision.
This guide is designed to help you build an initial vision so you can plan the other elements
of the school and start talking to parents. Make sure you read our full detailed guidance
handbook for how to complete the vision section (Section C) of the DfE’s application form.
It is incredibly important that you all agree on your initial vision, and that you make it
specific.
Your rationale
Your rationale should be a statement of the reasons why your school is needed in your area
and is formed of two parts:
— The needs of children in the area; and
— Why those needs mean you should have the key features of your school that you
have identified.
Some common rationales for different kinds of schools are provided below.
Mainstream schools
Special schools
AP schools
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The Local Authority (LA) has
identified a need for places
The LA has identified a need for
a new Special school
The local schools have identified
a need for new provision for a
cohort with specific needs
All the good local schools are
There is demand from parents of
oversubscribed and parents
children with a particular need
cannot get their school of choice for a special school and one
does not exist in your area,
those that exist are full, or those
that exist are unsuitable
Your particular cohort is not
achieving in mainstream school
and thus outcomes for them are
significantly lower than for
other young people in the area
A large percentage of pupils are
not attaining well
Local special schools do not
meet the needs of a particular
group of children because they
have too generic an intake, or
because their standards are low
There are high exclusion rates
from local mainstream schools
and excluded learners tend to
have vastly reduced life chances
You have developed an
innovative curriculum which will
raise outcomes for pupils in your
area
Young people with a particular
SEN are not achieving in their
local mainstream schools, and
may risk exclusion or other
problems without specialist
provision
There is a need for a specific
approach to working with your
proposed pupil cohort which is
not currently provided in your
area
It is important in developing your rationale that you are answering both of the following
questions:
— Why is a new state school needed in this area?
— Why is this school, in particular, needed?
The DfE is putting increased emphasis on showing evidence of need for your free school. In
assessing this, the DfE will be looking specifically at a combination of:
For mainstream free schools, demand from parents, which shows that your school will be
several times oversubscribed and at least one of the following:
1. Shortage of places - whether there will be a ‘basic need’ for more school places
in the relevant phase in your area. The DfE will bear in mind that Local
Authorities should have a 5% surplus
2. Underperformance of local schools in the relevant phase. You will be expected to
show that there are more pupils at weak schools (judged as ‘requires
improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted) in the area than the capacity of your
proposed school.
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Charity number: 1132122
As part of your rationale, you must ensure that you demonstrate how establishing your
particular free school will be meeting a combination of some or all of these criteria.
16-19 free schools
Basic need does not apply for post-16 pupils. To develop your rationale and show that there
is a need for your 16-19 free school, you should describe the current 16-19 provision in the
area and explain how your free school will increase choice and improve the quality of local
provision. You can also strengthen your case by presenting demographic data on the
number of students eligible for or currently in post-16 provision in your area that
demonstrates the need for more 16-19 provision.
Special free schools
You will need to show that there is a need for more places for young people with the SEN(s)
you wish to cater for. You might look at numbers of places available and the numbers of
young people with Statements or Education Health and Care Plans when making the case
for this. You should also make the argument for whether or not young people with the SEN
you wish to cater for are currently achieving their full potential in local provision, and
whether you can offer something of higher quality.
Alternative provision free schools
You will need to show that there is a shortage of high quality places for pupils with the
needs you intend to cater for in your LA or neighbouring LAs.
Your vision statement
Once you have identified the reasons why a new school is needed in your area, and the
characteristics that your school must have to meet these needs you should be able to define
your vision statement.
This should be brief, focused and aspirational. It should form the core of what you tell
parents, the local authority or other commissioners as appropriate when you are gathering
evidence of demand.
You might find it useful to ask each member of your team to describe your school in a
sentence or two separately before coming together. Between you, you can then decide
which qualities or features are most important to you and which are non-negotiable for
your school. These should form the basis of your vision, and underpin your entire
application.
It is very important that your vision is specific. For example instead of saying “we want all of
our pupils to be well prepared for life outside school” – which any school could say – you
could say “it is crucial for us that all of our pupils are well prepared for life outside school.
One way in which we will support them is by ensuring that each student accesses a relevant,
well-monitored work placement in partnership with our local employers to ensure that
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Charity number: 1132122
pupils are ready to enter the world of work having gained skills and experiences which are
valued in our community.”
Writing a vision statement can be daunting. If you do not know where to start but already
have a clear idea of what your school will be like, it may be helpful to separately make a list
of the features of your school under the following headings:
—
—
—
—
—
—
Why do you think education is important?
Why do you believe a school is needed (your rationale)?
What will the focus of the school be?
What will your curriculum include and what courses will you offer?
Who do you want to be involved?
What facilities and activities will you want to provide?
Your ethos
As well as a vision statement you need an ethos – the guiding principles and beliefs which
underpin a free school. In other organisations this is often called the “values” of the
organisation.
Common terms include self-respect, self-reliance, self-discipline, tolerance, ambition and
aspirations. These are all about the values you want to inculcate in pupils, but also the
values you will make sure your school embodies day to day.
Your ethos is likely to have a significant impact on how you approach behaviour, on your
outcomes and how you measure success.
Your outcomes
You should try and define, within your group, a couple of key outcomes for success. These
don’t all have to be academic, and should measure the success of all key aspects of your
vision for your school. Some examples of outcomes are below.
Mainstream schools
Special schools
AP schools
X% of pupils will achieve more
than the expected levels of
progress
The school will be Outstanding
in its Ofsted judgement
X% of pupils are within
employment and training at 19
X% of pupils will volunteer in the X% of pupils will be in training,
community on a regular basis – education or employment after
at least once a month
leaving the school
X% of pupils successfully
transition back to mainstream
and are still there 6 months
later.
X% of pupils will continue to
university, with y% attending
Russell Group universities
X% receive some on the job
training and turn up on time for
a full week.
X% of parents are satisfied with
the school and would
recommend it to others
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Charity number: 1132122
X% will achieve the English
Baccalaureate
X% of pupils are able to
X% pass GCSE Maths and English
participate in a particular activity
or extra-curricular activity
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newschoolsnetwork.org
Charity number: 1132122