A London council is demanding that a new free school employs only qualified teachers — despite not having any powers to do so.
Lambeth council has stepped into the free school row by asking a group setting up a new school in Brixton to pledge they will only employ “suitably qualified” people.
Education Secretary Michael Gove’s reforms mean free schools, which are not under local authorities’ control, can hire unqualified people as teachers in the same way private schools can.
Shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt has warned that a shift manager at McDonald’s is now required to have more qualifications than a teacher.
Supporters of the reforms believe that people with experience in other fields such as business will be attracted to the classroom.
Lambeth’s Labour council has escalated the row by writing to the Trinity Academy, due to open this year. Council leader Lib Peck wrote: “We seek your assurance that the Trinity free school plans to recruit and employ only suitably qualified teachers.
“Our experience in overseeing excellent urban education has demonstrated that high-quality teaching is essential to good educational results.”
A spokesman for the school said: “Trinity Academy believes in hiring the best teachers possible.
“Because of our focus on academic excellence, we’d generally expect our teachers to be even better qualified than teachers in other Lambeth schools and to have qualified teacher status.
“Trinity has had more than 20 strong applications from superb, qualified teachers for a post we just advertised. We’re confident we are attracting the cream of teaching talent.”
The “Catholic ethos” secondary school is to open on part of Lambeth College’s Brixton Hill campus in September.
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Lambeth council and some parents and residents have argued that secondary school places are not needed — and insist that the academy will have a negative effect on other schools in Brixton and Lambeth.
In her letter to the school’s board of governors, council leader Lib Peck expressed concerns about the location of the proposed four-form entry Catholic secondary school, and “the unintended negative impact it may have on existing Lambeth schools and … education of local children”.
