Everton 'school of science' offers salvation from school of hard knocks

The attitude of the head teacher is inspirational, especially in the times we're going through.

I've donated to EitC, and this article is one reason why I believe we should all consider supporting the organization. They make us proud.

If EITC has found an answer for some and cares enough to get involved then they are doing extraordinary work. People's lives have been changed for the better; I hope this model is studied and replicated everywhere.

This work is so important to the lives of a great many people, but also important to help maintain the soul of the Club. These are the activities that help maintain a link between the surreality of the Premier League & the real world the rest of us inhabit – in some cases, a bit too real for comfort!

It possibly has more to do with political ideology than as another brick in the edifice of national educational curriculum.

Their introduction has been questioned and challenged as being unnecessary, too costly and as drawing much needed funds from mainstream education which continues to face crippling budget cuts.

There is some legitimacy in that view. That said, as the linked Telegraph report notes, the Everton free school is aimed at a particular 'clientele' - particularly disruptive students that the 'system' has given up on. In that regard, the Everton Free School appears to be giving a good number of marginalised kids a genuine 'second chance' in life.

Whilst there is a core curriculum all are expected to follow (English and maths being compulsory), the school can be more flexible in what skills they offer individual students than their mainstream counterparts.

As the report mentions, they arranged a boxing trainer and even a DJ for individual students who showed an interest in those pursuits. Another showed a previously unknown interest in gardening and now is on the cusp of being taken on full-time with the club's ground staff team.

And to (possibly) correct Will Mahon whose post implies free schools are somehow run as charities or volunteers to cover the shortfall of the Government investment in social infrastructure, they are in fact funded by the Government, but not administered by the Local Education Authority as mainstream schools are.

The club and EitC, led by the admirable Denise Barrett-Baxendale, are of course closely associated with the school. Nothing wrong with that, IMO. EitC do sterling work, are established and have an excellent reputation for their efforts in the community and can offer much expertise and insight into the Everton free school's target clientele.

I personally wouldn't offer a ringing endorsement of the Government's ideology with regard to free schools and I had some disquiet when Everton launched one. However, on balance, it appears the school bearing Everton's name IS doing sterling, much-needed work, in the city.

Yet another example to be proud of Everton's (bizarrely, to me) sometimes much-maligned EitC initiatives.

We're pretending that the world out there is not competitive, that the supply of 'hope' is infinite. It would be nice if that were true. Only by tackling the "winner takes all" system of our society can we really attack the problem of disenfranchised youth.

The same is true in many areas – "Partnering" with the private sector being another so-called "Solution", now long established. Usually manifest as contracting outfits doing previously in-house tasks at "Competitive" rates, which equals small profits out of the difference between their minimum-wage employees and the previous "Cost" of the civil service. The cost that at one time suddenly became re-badged as "Enormous". Now they want free input from people. Charity and people's time. They're advertising the hell out of it.

"...from mainstream education which continues to face crippling budget cuts."

You're right, along with just about every budgetary area – and to this I say, and not to you personally: Why? Why? Where is the money?

One of the most taxed nations in the world, one of the most hard-working populations in the developed world, augmented supposedly by bringing in extra millions of people that "Add to the economy" (and hence taxation and efficiency, surely?) and yet...

In principle, free schools should be unnecessary. They exist because of the shortcomings in more traditional schools, and those shortcomings reflect the usual mismanagement and bullshit of government, who have consistently chopped and changed the education system for decades, to no great positive effect.

Rather than the government introducing these schools, it would have been better if they had looked properly (rationally for a change) at shortcomings in the traditional model. But of course they didn't, and probably won't.

So, the jury is out for me. But best of luck to those individuals who gain from it.

This is about kids who have suffered physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse and consequently push away all of the society that hurts them. While left and right wing activists & politicians score political points and point to a future Utopia, these kids are living miserable lives, many anaesthetised by drugs, prescription and otherwise. They cannot help themselves, they were not put where they are by systems or politics, they were put there by the many faults that lie within all of us as human beings. They were given a shitty hand in the poker game of Life and keep getting jokers.

If EitC can help some of those people using whatever tools come to hand then good on them. Yes, someone else should care but all too many are content to call these kids 'bad'. The alternative for the majority has all too often been suicide, early death or prison.

There are deep rooted problems, that governments need to think and be proactive about, rather than react all the time as they do. Their usual 5-minute fixes.

There is a multi-tiered system of levels behind the way things work. Posting about the governmental and political levels is not actively ignoring the youngsters' plight. Did you ignore the political angle to post about the young people? There's plenty of room for everyone's opinion.

"You think this is about free schools?"

Yes. Everton Free School is mentioned and discussed in the linked article.

You might say politics is part of the problem, not the solution. Free schools are just a tool; Everton are providing a solution.

Your second sentence is just an assertion, one that lets politicians off the hook.