London Academy of Excellence offers hopes for free school programme

By Richard Adams. Academic success of selective free school in east London gives Michael Gove chance to set out his vision for reform of education. In Michael Gove and Andrew Adonis's wildest dreams, the academies and free schools their policies ushered into being would be filled with bright students in spotless classrooms, being encouraged to apply to top universities. When the failures of the Al-Madinah and Discovery free schools dominated the headlines in 2013, that vision seemed the stuff of a madman's hallucination. But not in Stratford, in shadow of the deconstruction of the 2012 Olympic venue, where the free school project finally had a gold medal winner in the London Academy of Excellence. More...