According to research from the Institute of Education ("Free Schools in the Big Society: Aims, Governance and Inclusion"), almost a quarter of the 300 Free School applications are led by would-be headteachers. Of the research led by Dr Rob Higham, the Institute's own report says "Interestingly, nearly all the lead teacher-proposers appear to aspire to become the free school's head teacher from usually a teacher or middle leader level. For most it would represent very rapid promotion."
This may be a premature conclusion, given that Dr Higham according to the report has "identified 135 of the approximately 300 groups". Odd choice of verb "identified". I wonder what process lies behind it? Or why he could not "identify" the other approximately 165? Without this information, we readers cannot assess the sample or attribute any reliability to the report.
Nevertheless, on Twitter, this led @teachertomo (who describes herself as a "Teacher trade unionist. Passionate about education but not always the version we deliver in schools. vehemently against privatisation i.e academies.") to tweet: "Want to be a Headteacher? skip the interview process. Set up your own free school".
Knockabout politics aside, there are some suggestive numbers and observations in this early study. I was interested to read that "A quarter overall (25 per cent) are parent groups, most of whom hope to set up secondary schools", a higher proportion than I might have expected. Likewise, "some 13 per cent of applications are from existing private schools, either to move their own institution into the state sector or to set up a satellite operation", which the report of the research notes as an example of "some unexpected ways in which the free schools policy appears to be developing".
Personally, I would have thought that one of the merits - maybe the purpose - of the Free Schools programme was its encouragement of innovation, which must by definition be largely "unexpected". Dr Higham, of course, asserts the importance of research, "to provide data that can test the assumptions on both sides of the debate". I doubt that the "debate" has just two sides (for and against, no doubt) but I would like to see some research into the extent which the Free Schools programme has and does encourage innovation, in any way.
Nothing about Special Free Schools, though.