Toby Young: running free school was harder than I thought

Toby Young today admitted running a free school is more difficult than he thought as he prepares to step down as CEO of the West London Free School trust.

Mr Young admitted he had been “arrogant” to presume schools could improve just by having high expectations and said he regrets criticising teachers, state schools and local education authorities.

He set up the flagship West London Free School in Hammersmith in 2011, and the trust also now runs three other local schools.

Mr Young wants to spend more time as a journalist but will stay on as a director of the WLFS academy trust in a voluntary role.

He has advised his successor to “fly under the radar” instead of making public statements about education. In an interview with Schools Week newspaper he said: “There are a lot of things I regret.

“I was very critical of England’s public education system under the last Labour government, and I hadn’t grasped how difficult it is to do better, and to bring about system-wide improvement.”

He added: “As someone coming into education from the outside, the bits you see of other schools are only the tip of the iceberg.You think, ‘well, I could do better than that’, as you are pointing to the tip of the iceberg, without realising how much more there is to it.”

“The end of this academic year feels like a good time to hand over the reins. Since opening the secondary school with 120 children in 2011, the Trust has opened three additional schools and a sixth form.

"They’re popular with local parents, the children and staff are happy and we’ve sorted out all the teething problems.

"We now have excellent headteachers and senior leaders at all the schools and the secondary is safely ensconced in its permanent home.

"This summer will bring our first set of GCSE results and our first KS1 SATs results and I’m confident they’ll be strong. Overall, the Trust is running a healthy surplus. So it’s in a good state to hand over."