Rivendale Free School to go 'John Lewis' (from the TES)

by Alec Patton In the TES, Méabh Ritchie has written an excellent profile of three incipient free schools, which includes a description of the Rivendale Free School. As Ritchie explains, Rivendale isFounded on the same co-operative principles [as John Lewis], whereby staff own the company and have a say in its strategy, teachers and parents at Rivendale will be able to determine the direction of the school. The idea is that teachers will be able to make the same sorts of demands from parents as many parents are now making from teachers. “For example, that children get enough sleep or that they show up on time,” says Rivendale founder James Woods. “We expect it to be a mutually demanding relationship between the parents and the teachers.”This is exciting to see - Innovation Unit has done a great deal of work on the power of cooperatives and mutuals (most notably John Craig's piece, The Engagement Ethic), and it's good to see this notion cropping up in education - as it also does in the Learning Futures project. You can read Ritchie's full article here: The same but different - Features - TES Connect.